Speech (extract) by Jean-Claude Juncker

Speech (extract) by Jean-Claude Juncker

‘We must continue on this European path and that is why we need the European Constitution. […] Slowly and without our noticing it Europe will become, whether we want it to or not, an exalted free-trade zone without a constitution, without a completion of the domestic market, without the social dimension of the European Union. This is something one doesn’t notice at first. The poison of a free-trade market is that it has no taste and no smell. But at some point it is there. If we do not continue to lead the European integration with continued integrational politics or take further steps to lead the European Union, we will land in a free-trade zone. And a free-trade zone is a simple concept for an eminently complicated continent like the European Union. And the European Union must be political; it cannot only be understood in terms of economics. The market alone does not produce any solidarity, not among the people or among the nations. And we need this solidarity among European nations. […] One month of war is more expensive than 20 years of European Union.’

Photo Jean-Claude Juncker

Jean-Claude Juncker