Peer Steinbruck Quotes

The euro is our common fate, and Europe is our common future.

Europe needs an engine, and the Franco-German motor has provided that when the two nations have converged on important topics during critical periods. But that partnership shouldn't be a directorate for other EU members.

I believe that in Europe, we have a collective leadership.

I am a very committed European.

For Europe to play a part in the world on the scale of its wealth and its population and its capacities, Europe has to be united in some way, and Europe is not united.

To avoid the trap of Europe fragmenting on the economy, security, and identity, we have to return to the original promises of the European project: peace, prosperity and freedom. We should have a real, adult, democratic debate about the Europe we want.

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

As much as I believe in the Franco-German partnership, I question the idea of a duopoly. European construction is based on a well-balanced and respectful partnership between France and Germany.

With every wish to take Europe forward with a German-French nucleus, the proposals must always fit with German interests.

Germany has to put the broader European interest on the same level as its own national interest, or the euro is toast.

You can't build Europe against anyone.

I don't just want a better deal for Britain. I want a better deal for Europe too. So I speak as British prime minister with a positive vision for the future of the European Union. A future in which Britain wants, and should want, to play a committed and active part.

Ireland has a role to play in making the E.U. united and strong.

We need less theoretical debate and more practical application and acknowledgment of what Europe can and does do so that it is brought home to people in a relevant way.

I am a committed European; a united Europe is Romania's future.

I am not a British isolationist. I don't just want a better deal for Britain. I want a better deal for Europe too.

What we have to do is reinvent the idea of Europe.

I said, yet again, for Germany, Europe is not only indispensable, it is part and parcel of our identity. We've always said German unity, European unity and integration, that's two parts of one and the same coin. But we want, obviously, to boost our competitiveness.

Whatever else may divide us, Europe is our common home; a common fate has linked us through the centuries, and it continues to link us today.

Is Europe going to be breaking? I don't think so. I think the euro will stay. I think at the end of the day Europeans will find the solutions in order to hold Europe together.

I declare myself an Austrian and a European. A united Europe will be a peaceful Europe.

So I think that is from the European perspective, for the European future, this engagement can be one of the most important and effective decisions in the last 50 years maybe.

A two-speed Europe will not be a strong Europe. The idea of making decisions and policies in a narrow circle, disregarding smaller EU members, will make it hard to engage them to commit to a common policy, which will weaken the union.

It's political glue inside Europe to keep it together - the euro is the best thing going for it since the creation of the common market.

One has to explain to people that the EU in this form is the answer both to 1945 and to the 21st century, in a dramatically altered world with new heavyweights, and that Germany benefits from the continued integration of Europe in political, economic and societal ways. And, of course, that means the Germans will have to pay.