Frans Timmermans Quotes

The issue of migration has played a key role in all of our member states, wherever we are. Only we, as a European Union, can convince our citizens that we do have an answer to this - not deny migration, not pretend you can solve it by building fences and walls, not pretending we can solve it by letting everybody in.

To properly reflect the changes of the world and of the UN, with its growing number of member states, we would like to see an enlargement of the SC that gives room for new members, not least developing countries.

To be influential in tomorrow's world, to defend our values and our development model, France needs Europe and Europe needs France.

Nations are herds of cattle

… make Englishmen cognizant of the processes through which the progressive destinies of Europe are being worked out, so that whenever European Affairs may call for interference, they may be in no doubt as to the course to be pursued.

Brussels and its multifarious networks provide member states not just with trading access but also a guarantee of regular encounters, negotiations, contacts, informants, and alliances.

I feel that our attitude to our borders is wrong; it's the first time that an awful lot of people think you can and should just close your border and remain in this splendid isolation.

Leaving the E.U. would mean the 'Guernseyfication' of the U.K., which would then be a little country on the world scale. It would isolate itself and become a trading post and arbitration place at Europe's border.

My entire political career has been based on building up Britain's political standing and economic prosperity through our membership of the E.U. and the European project.

If you look at it ideologically, I would say Brexit is not something that probably is good for the world.

However painful or regrettable Brexit may be, it will not stop the E.U. as it moves to the future; we need to move forward.

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

Before we kill Schengen, we have to make Dublin work.

In retrospect, the populist panic may have been overblown. Regarding Brexit, for example, the shock exaggerated its meaning. Because it was so unexpected, it became a sensation.

In 2015, the majority of refugees and migrants reached the European Union through Greece. Greek authorities were overwhelmed by the sheer number of people arriving at their shores. But they did not stay there. They were waved through to Central Europe at an increasing pace.

We need to fight to prove to people that it is possible to form an E.U. migration policy that is in line with the Hungarian national interest.

If you want to decide the question of migration without asking your citizens against the will of the people, you are fighting a losing battle.

Do you agree that the European Union should be able to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of parliament?

What is the issue that has brought the European Union to the brink? The issue of migration.

The claim made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that the refugee question is a German problem is incorrect. It is a European problem.

The [Barack] Obama administration has pressured Mexico to keep them away from the Mexican border, so that they don't succeed in reaching the United States. Pretty much the same thing Europeans have done to Turks and Syrians.

India's difficulties in negotiating an FTA with both the ASEAN and E.U. are a reminder of the importance of multilateralism.

Immigration is a legitimate concern, but it's not a good reason to leave the E.U.

For all the farcical invoking of Blitz spirit, Brexit isn't merely an absurdist experiment in English nationalist nostalgia - it is the most audacious example yet of a futuristic Russian nationalism that seeks to divide and rule Europe.

As David Cameron so brutally found out in 2015-16, there is limited appetite in Brussels to be helpful or flexible towards Britain.