Those who constantly qualify everything and have no opinions of their own are ultimately just as incapable of tolerance.

If the Schengen system (of border-free travel) is destroyed, Europe will be seriously endangered politically and economically. That is why we Europeans have to invest billions in Turkey, Libya, Jordan and other countries in the region as quickly as possible everybody as much as they can.

Germany has always stood for an E.U. of the 27 countries. But in light of Britain's continued resistance to further integration steps, as we saw with the fiscal pact, there are limits to my optimism in this regard. It's quite possible that we will have to create the new institutions for the euro zone first.

During the centuries-long process of Reformation and Enlightenment, Christian churches had to accept some things they didn't like. Islam will have to do the same; otherwise it isn't part of Europe.

Europe has grown through crises. Each crisis also presents opportunities, and Europe has emerged stronger from each one. That is the way history unfolds. Europe is sometimes slow, and it reacts sluggishly, but it is capable of finding solutions.

I don't want to interpret the pope's words, especially as I am one of those horrible people who fell away from the Roman church after Martin Luther.

We need more personnel within our security agencies.