Helmut Kohl Quotes

I'm a big believer in Europe.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Germany is an economic giant but a political midget, and with the end of the Cold War she has started to muscle her presence throughout Europe and the world.

I am a very committed European.

Acknowledge that a more closely integrated Europe is no longer an unqualified American interest.

The E.U. has its weaknesses, but it's been pretty good for us, and it's been pretty good for Europe, and it's kept peace.

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

The most important thing is that Europe has to remain united.

You can't build Europe against anyone.

With respect to Euro-Atlantic integration, we have to realize that we need to normalize the relationships with our neighbors, and especially with Russia.

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.

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.

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

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

The decisive factor for the future of Europe - and before all things, for the 'restoration' of Europe - will be whether political thought and national feelings are influenced by the reality of internationalism.

Europe is difficult to coordinate, and our main deficit may not even lie in this area of finance and economics, but in foreign and security policy. We have a leadership problem because we are still 27 different members who have still not decided on how to work with each other based on what we used to call a European constitution.

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

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.

Turning away Turkey from the EU would be a great, long-term - a century-long - error by Europe.

In Europe it is particularly important that we build good relations to everyone who holds political responsibility because Europe can only be build together.

I do not separate France from Europe.