We hope to see a Europe where men of every country will think as much of being a European as of belonging to their native land, and that without losing any of their love and loyalty of their birthplace.
Winston Churchill 09/05/1948
Category: European Federalism, European Integration
Europe is... a monument to the vanity of individuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure.
Margaret Thatcher 03/2002
Category: European Union , European Constitution, European Federalism, European Integration, Eurosceptic
We believe in a free Europe, not a standardised Europe. Diminish that variety within the member states, and you impoverish the whole Community. We insist that the institutions of the European Community are managed so that they increase the liberty of the individual throughout the continent. These institutions must not be permitted to dwindle into bureaucracy. Whenever they fail to enlarge freedom the institutions should be criticised and the balance restored.
Margaret Thatcher 07/1979
Category: European Integration
My first guiding principle is this: willing and active co-operation between independent sovereign states. Europe will be stronger precisely because it has France as France, Spain as Spain, Britain as Britain, each with its own customs, traditions and identity. It would be folly to try to fit them into some sort of identikit European personality.
Margaret Thatcher 09/1988
Speech tot he College of Europe in Bruges
Category: European Integration
The Federated Republic of Europe - the United States of Europe - that is what must be. National autonomy no longer suffices. Economic evolution demands the abolition of national frontiers. If Europe is to remain split into national groups, then Imperialism will recommence its work. Only a Federated Republic of Europe can give peace to the world.
Leon Trotsky 30/10/1917
Conversation at Smolny, Petrograd
Category: European Federalism, European Integration
The future will belong to the Germans... ...when we build the House of Europe. In the next two years, we will make the process of European integration irreversible. This is a really big battle but it is worth the fight.
Helmut Kohl 10/1996
Category: Germany, European Integration
No government dependent upon a democratic vote could possibly agree in advance to the sacrifice that any adequate plan must involve. The people must be led slowly and unconsciously into their abandonment of their traditional economic defences...
Peter Thorneycroft
On European Integration
Category: European Integration
