Speech (extract) by Joseph Luns

Speech (extract) by Joseph Luns

‘The conception of an integrated Europe has thrust its roots very deeply indeed into our way of life—so deeply that we cannot imagine life without it. […] But what I believe is more important than all this is that a way of thinking has been evolved for ever widening sectors of our people in which integration within the framework of the Communities is looked upon as an entirely natural, self-evident matter. […] The Community’s main shortcoming is its restricted membership, the fact that they comprise half of Western Europe only. But their very nature the European Communities should be instruments of unification, not of fresh discord. […] But the Communities’ imperfections are also to be found in the institutional sphere […] But there is yet another danger. I am thinking of the danger of Europe becoming so engrossed in its own problems, so much turned in upon itself, that it will neglect its vital ties with the rest of the world. […] We do not want to be mere European Europeans, not mere Atlantic Europeans, what we want is to be World Europeans.’