Forgiveness and Promises. Robert Schuman’s inheritance

The appeal of 9 May 1950 remains, to our great satisfaction, a momentous event. It is being commemorated today in several European capitals and also before the United Nations Assembly. Having received invitations from many quarters, I chose to accept the invitation from Jean-Claude Juncker to attend this ceremony organised by one of the founding countries. This was an opportunity for me to visit a city where Robert Schuman once lived and to pay tribute to Luxembourg, which has done so much to build the European house.

I would therefore like to express my deep esteem for your compatriots who have served the European cause so well and, at the risk of forgetting many of those who played a part in this adventure, I would like to mention Joseph BECK, Pierre WERNER (for whom I would ask you to join me in a moment of silence), Gaston Thorn, Colette Flesch, Jacques Santer, Jacques Poos and, of course, the current Prime Minister, as well as all my Luxembourg colleagues who have worked within the European Commission. In these circumstances, it is worth recalling the context of fear in which Robert Schuman’s initiative was born. It resulted in a treaty, the European Coal and Steel Community, which forms the basis for everything that has been achieved to date.

Everything was there: the meaning of our action, of course, but also a brilliant institutional framework that enabled progress to be made, the so-called Community method, which must still serve as a reference for us today. Admittedly, as everyone recognises, the world has changed since 1950 and is currently undergoing a new transformation marked by globalisation and rapid technological progress. Some use this as an argument to conclude that the Community model is outdated or has reached its limits. As the Union’s largest enlargement looms, it is worth returning to its roots to open a debate on the Europe of tomorrow.