Speech (extract) by Edward Heath

Speech (extract) by Edward Heath

‘We have a common background of Christian culture and civilisation revived by Charlemagne with an Englishman Alcuin as his closest collaborator. We have the same industrialised society, the same preoccupation with world trade, and now for the first time the same strategic interests. […] For Charlemagne the unity of Europe could have been an end in itself because for him Europe was the world. But for us it can only be the means to an end. Our aim must be hat Europe should continue to take a leading part in a world of which she is no longer the only centre of power and influence. […] And of course the European Communities themselves are the outstanding example of Europe’s ability to produce novel solutions to the great problems of our time. Democrats, good friends and allies, pioneers in the field of technical development, protagonists of greater freedom of trade, innovators in the sphere of international cooperation, to the fore in the solution of world problems—this is how we Europeans should appear to the rest of the world.’