Wolfgang Schauble Quotes

Perhaps our own opposition to even the level of European integration we have now, let alone any more, is well known.

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

'Federalism', in the context of political and media usage in Britain, has come to mean the creation and imposition of a European superstate, one centralised in Brussels.

The EU Constitution sets a path towards the elimination of nation states and the emergence of a European state in the strictest sense of the word. I'm definitely opposed to it… The EU isn't a loving family of European nations where everyone altruistically cares for everyone else. Various interests clash on various issues, and all kinds of coalitions are struck to push through specific solutions

The heart of the matter is that the very nature of the European Union, and of this country's relationship with it, has fundamentally changed after the coming into being of the European monetary union and the creation of the eurozone, of which - quite rightly - we are not a part.

I think us leaving would have an enormous and bad effect on the rest of the EU. The EU would respond by deepening integration and becoming more of a 'political project'. It would not only be damaging ourselves but also the kind of Europe we want.

De facto, you have a multi-speed Europe. You look at the Schengen, you look at the euro zone, all this kind of cooperations, you have a multi-speed Europe.

I don't want to leave euro or leave the European Union.

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.

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.

I've never been one to say that Britain was joining a happy band of brothers.

We believe that the European Union is facing a truly historic choice.

The EU is an English-speaking power. The single market was a British idea…. If you refuse please don’t expect us to help you wreck or paralyze the EU.

Western Europe has been redefining the nation state since 1945 when it formed the European Union following World War II.

I hope Britain stays in the European Union, but I don't want to decide for the British.

I am strictly against a European superstate.

We don't want a European super state.

I have specifically argued that we need to change our relationship with the European Union by fundamentally reforming not just our relationship but the European Union itself.

Britain's destiny lies in Europe.

But the European Union does not have a concept of national identity. It was set up to abolish that idea, not to abolish German national identity because that was trying to save itself.

What's going to happen is that there will be a definite consensus that Europe is not working. The diagnosis will be to shed the currency and keep the rest, or that Europe is not working and a broader rejection - like in the U.K.

'Ever closer union' is one of the totemically controversial phrases in the European Union's Treaties. It seems to give weight to the view that the scheme is designed to end in a single state and that those who agreed the texts have long know this, even if they have been unwilling to admit it to the British people.

In the long run, Europe will certainly move toward unification. But it will be a process of push and pull, and there will be resistance.

I think the E.U. means different things to different countries. In the U.K., traditionally, if you know anything about the U.K.'s history and its relationship with the E.U., it is about the common market; it's about being part of something that is good for jobs and growth.

When we were told Brexit meant taking back powers for Parliament, no one told my constituents this meant the French parliament and the German parliament, not our own.