Helmut Kohl Quotes

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

I see us very much at the heart of Europe. We are founding members of the single market; we are founding members of the euro.

The euro is a great achievement. It's a symbolic achievement. But, the European constitution was a missed opportunity.

Some countries that are close to Europe that already hold Deutschemarks, clearly would automatically hold euros, those are countries in Eastern Europe mainly, a few countries in Africa.

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.

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.

I can confirm that Poland should become a eurozone country, and not just because of the treaties that have been signed, but because I consider it of strategic interest both for Poland and the E.U.

The euro currency both presupposes and promotes a fiction - that 'Europe' has somehow become, against the wishes of most Europeans, a political rather than a merely geographic expression.

Peace in Europe can only come through union in one economic system. The United States of Europe are overdue.

Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?

United States of Europe

While it was an experiment to bring them together, nothing has divided Europe as much as the euro.

Europe is one thing. The euro is something else.

I think there are going to be more countries joining the euro.

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

Precedents are dangerous things; let the rein of government then be braced and held with a steady hand.

I want the whole of Europe to have one currency; it will make trading much easier.

For my generation, the monetary union has always been about forging peace.

The euro is a sickly premature infant, the result of an over-hasty monetary union.

The orators and the despots have the least power in their cities ... since they do nothing that they wish to do, practically speaking, though they do whatever they think to be best.

German predominance is not all-encompassing. In foreign affairs and military matters, for instance, France and Britain still play a much bigger role. But across a large swathe of European policy, Germany has become much more than a first among equals.

Then, the specialists themselves, probably believe that in the course of EU expansion, for example, some elements concerning the readiness of some economies to enter the Eurozone have not been taken into account.

The smaller the number and the more permanent and conspicuous the station of men in power, the stronger must be the interest which they will individually feel in whatever concerns the government.

To rulers religion, like almost everything else, is a tool of power.

Our future begins on January 1 1999. The euro is Europe's key to the 21st century. The era of solo national fiscal and economic policy is over.