Romano Prodi Quotes

This much is true: When we created the euro, it wasn't possible to create a political union along with it. People weren't ready for that. But since then, they've grown more willing to go in that direction. It's a process, one that is sometimes laborious and sometimes slow. But it's important to keep the populations involved.

The bureaucratic method of building an integrated Europe has exhausted its potential.

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

Our task is nothing less than the creation of a new constitutional order for a new united Europe.

Europe was initially supposed to be primarily a political project! The EU never would have come about had it been up to experts or diplomats. It was created by people who had learned from the drama of our collective history. I am proposing a new beginning, not one in which it is first deliberated ad infinitum what instruments one needs, but one that follows from the goals we want to achieve.

My main concern is the political dimension of European integration. This is one of the most important issues of all, as far as I'm concerned. It has to do with our past, with our sensitivity, perhaps even our hypersensitivity in this regard.

We have to give ourselves a constitution which marks the birth of Europe as a political entity.

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.

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

I do not consider the Lisbon Treaty to be a good thing for Europe, for the freedom of Europe, or for the Czech Republic.

Whatever else may divide us, Europe is our common home; a common fate has linked us through the centuries, and it continues to link us today.

This revision of the Constitution will not be perfect. But at least the Constitution will not be inflexible. It will be a step towards the Social Europe which we wish.

I would wish for more British involvement in Europe, not less.

Europe has a lot of strength. We need to pool that strength, and I am very much in favour of that - more of a deeper political union.

You know, it's been President Clinton's dream that we'll have finally a fully integrated Europe; and the steps that NATO will take to expand to the East, that's a commitment.

Limitless enlargement of Europe means the death of political Europe.

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

In the light of these treaties we are Europeans only.

[Europe needs] the efficiency and … simplicity of a single state.

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.

It's not only the British voters who have doubts about European cooperation. There is skepticism in many other E.U. countries.

For many years prior to the 1990s, European integration was embraced and supported by a large majority of citizens. A united Europe, bound by commonly-held democratic values, was perceived as an essential and effective buffer against the Soviet empire. A united Europe made a repeat of the First and Second World Wars almost unthinkable.

You go to Paris, or you go to Portugal, you go to Poland, and you ask, 'Who are you people?' They'll tell you, we're Portuguese, we're Spanish, we're Polish. Who are the people that are really European? The people in Brussels, in the E.U. bureaucracy. Europe has not been able to move to the level of patriotic identification with the concept.

Northern Ireland must, in future, be absorbed into the Irish republic. Wales and Scotland must advance from devolution to full independent status. The four nations of these islands must commit themselves absolutely to the project of a United Europe.

What every generation must do is try to make Europe better than it was in the past.