Georgi Parvanov Quotes

Europe is difficult to coordinate, and our main deficit may not even lie in this area of finance and economics, but in foreign and security policy. We have a leadership problem because we are still 27 different members who have still not decided on how to work with each other based on what we used to call a European constitution.

I believe that the E.U. should be the union of nation states and that all deepening of ties between the member states cannot go beyond the limits of democracy.

My struggle led to the reunification of Germany and the creation of the state of Europe. We destroyed the borders; globalisation is on the horizon.

The great European dream was to diminish militant nationalism. We would all be happy Europeans together. But we are going to see the old monster of militant nationalism being awoken when people realise how little control their politicians have.

After choosing monetary union, further political union and workable governance in Europe was always going to be necessary.

The E.U.'s 500 million citizens enjoy the right to live and work in any of the Union's 27 member states.

I am a partisan and artisan of Europe. But I draw the lessons of my experience in government.

If governments let themselves be fully bound by the decisions of their parliaments without protecting their own freedom to act, a breakup of Europe would be a more probable outcome than deeper integration.

Without Britain, Europe would remain only a torso.

Europe has a lot of strength. We need to pool that strength, and I am very much in favour of that - more of a deeper political union.

The fact that we're going through a crisis is an opportunity for Europe to be more coordinated and more integrated. We're actually talking about a European Monetary Fund or euro bonds, about guarantees for countries, about economic governance in the European Union. That shows the strength of Europe.

If there is no real European federation and if Germany is restored as a strong and independent country, we must expect another attempt at German domination…. The only reasonably hopeful possibility for avoiding … this is some form of federation in Western and Central Europe.

Limitless enlargement of Europe means the death of political Europe.

Europe has just too many countries who have hated each other for too long to pull it apart and very little to hold it together.

[Europe needs] the efficiency and … simplicity of a single state.

If there is not a united policy, this mechanism will not work: it will collapse, and it will... undoubtedly be the end of Schengen, the return of national borders.

Europe has never had a single or unified voice in world affairs: a common foreign policy. It has often appeared to be rudderless and unable to make quick decisions when faced with economic crises, presenting instead an image of division and hopelessness.

For many years prior to the 1990s, European integration was embraced and supported by a large majority of citizens. A united Europe, bound by commonly-held democratic values, was perceived as an essential and effective buffer against the Soviet empire. A united Europe made a repeat of the First and Second World Wars almost unthinkable.

You can suddenly have a series of countries waking up and saying, 'I want the same status as the Brits,' which will be, de facto, the dismantling of the rest of Europe.

To make Europe more effective is a worthwhile objective. To make Europe less important in your calculations is a big mistake.

It's not for Germany to decide for the rest of Europe.

The Netherlands believes in a vigorous Europe with a commission that is independent and robust.

In the E.U., the initiation of policy comes from the European Commission - not the European parliament, the European Commission, an appointed body; a committee of 27 countries where everything is haggled away.

We have to make the argument that the only economically sound place to be is within Europe - we have to remember, it's history again, that there are reasons we bound ourselves together as a set of European nations and it all came out of the second world war.

As the Eurozone takes steps towards closer fiscal and economic integration, and as the E.U. continues to develop, we need to be absolutely clear when it is most appropriate to take decisions at the national or local level, closer to the people affected, and in other cases when it is best to take action at the E.U. or global level.