"All of us working with Jean Monnet well understood how irrational it was to carve a limited economic sector out of the jurisdiction of national governments and subject that sector to the sovereign control of supranational institutions. Yet, with his usual perspicacity, Monnet recognized that the very irrationality of this scheme might provide the pressure to achieve exactly what he wanted - the triggering of a chain reaction. The awkwardness and complexity resulting from the singling out of coal and steel would drive member governments to accept the idea of pooling other production as well"
"The internal market and the common currency demand joint co-ordinating action. This will require us to finally bury some erroneous ideas of national sovereignty... National sovereignty in foreign and security policy will soon prove itself to be a product of the imagination."
––American diplomat George Ball,
1994, forward to Jean Monnet: The First Statesman of Interdependence
1994, forward to Jean Monnet: The First Statesman of Interdependence
"The internal market and the common currency demand joint co-ordinating action. This will require us to finally bury some erroneous ideas of national sovereignty... National sovereignty in foreign and security policy will soon prove itself to be a product of the imagination."
––Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder,
"We decide on something, leave it lying around, and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don't understand what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back."
––President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker,
"Monetary union is there, the common currency is there. So our main concern nowadays is foreign policy and defence. The next step, in terms of integration of the European Union, will be our constitution. We are today where you were in Philadelphia in 1787."
––French diplomat Jean-David Levitte,
"The Constitution is the capstone of a European Federal State."
––Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt,
"We know that nine out of ten people will not have read the Constitution and will vote on the basis of what politicians and journalists say. More than that, if the answer is No, the vote will probably have to be done again, because it absolutely has to be Yes."
––Former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene,
"The EU Constitution is the birth certificate of the United States of Europe. The Constitution is not the end point of integration, but the framework for––as it says in the preamble––an ever closer union."
––Former German Minister for Europe Hans Martin Bury,
"If it's a Yes, we will say "on we go", and if it's a No we will say "we continue"."
––President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker,
"Of course there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would I be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?"
––President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker,
"I like to compare the EU as a creation to the organisation of empire. We have the dimension of empire."
––Former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso,
"If governments were always right we would not have the situation that we have today. Decisions taken by the most democratic institutions in the world are very often wrong."
––Former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso,
"Monetary policy is a serious issue. We should discuss this in secret, in the Eurogroup… I'm ready to be insulted as being insufficiently democratic, but I want to be serious… I am for secret, dark debates... When it becomes serious, you have to lie."
––President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker,
"We decided to arrive at a political union via an economic and currency union. We had the hope––and we still have it today––that the Euro will gradually bring about political union... Most member states are not yet fully prepared to accept the necessary constraints on national sovereignty. But trust me, the problem can be solved."
––German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble,
"We need a political union, which means we must gradually cede powers to Europe and give Europe control... We cannot just stop because one or other doesn’t want to join in yet."
––German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
"There can be no democratic choice against the European treaties."
––President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker,
January, 2015, quote to French newspaper Le Figaro
"It's a horrible path, but it's a logical path. Leave Europe, leave Schengen and leave democracy. Do you really want to participate in a common state? That's the question."
––French President Francois Hollande,
August, 2015, speech in the European Parliament
May, 2018, interview with Deutsche Welle
May, 2018, question and answer session in Brussels
"The coming weeks will show that the development of the markets, government bonds and the economy of Italy will be so far-reaching that this will be a possible signal to voters not to vote for populists on the right or left"
––EU commissioner Günther Oettinger,
“Italians have to take care of the poor regions of Italy. That means more work; less corruption; seriousness”
––President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker
"The worst case scenario would be Italy goes bankrupt. Then the Troika would have to march into Rome and take over the finance ministry"
––German MEP Markus Ferber
May, 2018, interview with German TV
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