George Papandreou Quotes

The magic was in the Marshall Plan itself. It provided an opportunity for appealing and constructive work. In a sense, the mission chiefs were given the opportunity to help act as architects for the new Europe that was envisioned.

The Europeans had made two promises to the United States if Marshall Plan help was forthcoming. The first promise was maximum self-help on the part of every country; and second, maximum mutual aid.

At German unification, we were lucky to get so much help from West Germany. Now, we have the good fortune of being able to help each other in Europe.

While the Marshall Plan was important for Europe's recovery, Europe's prosperity was really built on economic integration and policy coherence.

Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts.

It took us 50 months in Germany, post World War II to go from the end of the war to a national election.

There were severe and highly influential critics of the Marshall plan. They called it a ‘boondoggle,’ a ‘waste’ and a ‘giveaway.’ This costly program had to be sustained.

The United States was proud to stand with the people of Germany as this nation and this continent reunited and rebuilt and reached for a better future.

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.

True, other countries are helping us. Germany is determined to provide substantial help. So are the Netherlands and other states. But a day will come when we have to count on our own resources.

Today, hundreds of millions dwell in freedom, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, from the Western Approaches to the Aegean. And while we must never take this for granted, the first purpose of the European Union - to secure peace - has been achieved and we should pay tribute to all those in the EU, alongside Nato, who made that happen.

Yet the whole preamble of the second authorization act for the Marshall Plan showed the direction Congress was ready to take about breaking down barriers within Europe.

Germany's fate is decided first and foremost in Europe. Reconciliation and cooperation in Europe have brought us freedom, peace and prosperity. Who would have dared to believe so much 50 years ago?

Voices were heard from the United States of America which made it clear that America wanted a peaceful and united Europe as a basis for mutual cooperation.

The creation of a United States of Europe is a necessity if one considers the economic and technical situation.

Germany is the united heart of an ever increasingly united continent.

After the end of the Cold War, we have the obligation to help these Eastern European countries to enjoy the same kinds of benefits that we enjoyed 50 years ago.

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.

There's going to be a need for a system of cooperation within the continent of Europe including the U.K. that covers both economic and political cooperation.

The 20th Century was a bloodbath, and for all the frustrations and failures of the project to unify Europe, the last five decades have been periods of unprecedented peace, growth, and prosperity in Europe.

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.

As complicated and complex and as difficult as we are, the unity of Europe is a pre-condition for a better organized world, and if the European Union would fail or decompose, or other members left, the U.S. would have a more difficult role to play in the world.

I am absolutely convinced that the E.U. will still be around. I am convinced the U.K. will be sitting at that table and not negotiating an exit, but being there to stay.

The U.S.-E.U. partnership is indispensable to ensuring a Europe whole, free, and at peace.

The E.U. is the latest of a series of multinational organizations set up after World War II to ensure that there would never again be a pan-European war and to create the conditions for a new European prosperity after the destruction wrought by the war against the Nazis. The E.U. has admirably succeeded at both.