Helmut

Kohl

Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany

Speech made to the Assembly

Thursday, 28 September 1995

All speechesQuestions and answers

Mr President, Mr Secretary General, ladies and gentlemen – or permit me, as someone who has been a parliamentarian for more than thirty years, to say dear colleagues. First of all, I should like to thank you, Mr President, very warmly for your kind words of welcome and for the cordial personal remarks in your speech. I am particularly pleased that you have welcomed me in my mother tongue, which gives me the hope that this may become a little more common practice in this Chamber.

The Parliamentary Assembly has never been just an advisory body, but has always seen itself, too, as one of the driving forces behind development of the Council of Europe and indeed Europe itself.

Our continent – we all feel this, and the presence of so many guests and representatives here today reflects the fact – is going through a dramatic phase of change and upheaval. We can also see that in this Chamber. Two years ago, the Council of Europe had twenty-seven member countries. It now has thirty-six and, counting guest delegations, freely elected representatives from a total of forty-two European countries are gathered here today.

It is only by stopping for a moment, considering what things are like in 1995 and then thinking back fifty years that we can measure the enormous distance we have covered in Europe in those decades. I say this in defiance of that foolish and modish pessimism which some people use to further their own political ends.

Looking at developments in Europe in the last fifty years, we can justly afford to feel optimistic. This is why I extend a particularly warm welcome to all the parliamentarians who have come here from central, south-eastern and eastern Europe. Your presence here is convincing proof of what I have just been saying. We have made considerable progress in the last fifty years and, if we have the intelligence, the patience and the courage – three things which belong together – to keep this up in the coming years and decades, there is every reason to hope that, after the twentieth century, which has seen so much in the way of distress, horror and suffering, the twenty-first century may yet turn out well.

The unnatural division of Europe and the unnatural division of Germany have been overcome. In a few days, on 3 October, we shall be celebrating the fifth anniversary of German unification. For us Germans it was a present given us by history, and we are grateful that it was possible for us to receive this present with the approval of all our neighbours.

Everything that is now happening and must happen in my country requires a great deal of energy, courage and mutual understanding, for forty years of division are more than just the result of a mathematical calculation. There was the wall between us and the fact that we belonged to separate political blocs. The experiences of this period of division have become etched on people’s hearts and minds.

Nevertheless, those of you who have visited Germany, including the new Lander, in the last few years will have been aware of the radical changes that are taking place and realised that, in spite of all the worries we naturally have, we are on the right path, although a great deal remains to be done. I am quite sure that the people in Germany will solve together the enormous economic and social problems they face. The most difficult of these problems are not those of a material nature, which we shall solve, though not all at the same time – some will take years. The most important thing, in spite of forty years of separation, is for us to come together again as human beings and, as I say back home, for us to talk to one another and not about one another.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Council of Europe is the oldest pan-European organisation of free states in Europe. It is – and I feel that this cannot be sufficiently repeated – an Institution which embodies like no other the unity of Europe based on respect for human rights, to which Pope John Paul II referred in his speech to the European Parliament as the “genius of Europe”.

In the decades following the end of the second world war, the Council of Europe was already playing an enormous part in drawing our continent together. In 1949 and the years after that, its founders – and we should think of them with gratitude more frequently – tried, often on the basis of their own agonising experiences, to learn the necessary lessons from the history of this century.

They clearly recognised that lasting peace and reconciliation in Europe could be secured only on the basis of democracy and respect for human rights. It is this spirit, this insight and vision of the world, which has determined the Council’s work ever since.

I can only congratulate you on the way in which you continue to apply these principles in admitting new members. Your recommendations to the Committee of Ministers are the basis of its decisions on allowing new countries to join. It must also be said that individual members of the Assembly have done much, in the course of contacts and discussions in applicant countries, to promote democratic structures and further the cause of reform. That, too, is one of the ways in which the Assembly has lived up to its great responsibilities.

It has sometimes been said – and I fully agree with this – that the Parliamentary Assembly is Europe’s “democratic conscience”. You have never shied away from difficult issues – and I hope that we shall be tackling some difficult issues later – from maintaining the Council’s high standards and from making yourselves heard whenever those standards are breached. I would strongly encourage you to keep on doing this in future. You stand for values without which Europe can have no free future.

I have good reasons for mentioning the Council’s work on improving the protection of minorities. I should like, above all, to pay tribute to the framework convention which seeks, for the first time, to protect minority rights and freedoms effectively in international law.

Ladies and gentlemen, I spoke just now about this century, which will be coming to an end in five years’ time. If we stop for a moment and consider what course this century would have taken if we had had declarations that are binding in international law as early as 1910 we realise that we and the peoples of Europe would have been spared terrible suffering.

You have only to watch the reports from the former Yugoslavia on the evening news to see once again how vital it is that Europeans should stop merely talking about the rules embodied in the European Convention on Human Rights and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and at last start applying them.

The important thing now – and I am saying this as German head of government – is also to strengthen the Council of Europe for the tasks that lie ahead. I am thinking here of the European Convention on Human Rights, better protection for minorities and – jointly with the European Union – resolute words and action to combat racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic tendencies.

Ladies and gentlemen, for our partner countries in central, south-eastern and eastern Europe, membership of the Council of Europe is an important step towards full integration within the European community of values and – I say this advisedly – rights. In this connection I welcome your recommendations in favour of the accession of Macedonia and Ukraine.

It also needs to be clearly pointed out that one of the great challenges of the years ahead will be getting Russia, too, to see its future in European terms – politically, economically, in matters of security and, last but not least, culturally.

Decades of conflict between East and West have made many people here in Europe forget that Russia is part of Europe, not only geographically but in an historical and cultural sense. This is why I particularly welcome your decision to put consideration of Russia’s accession back on the Council’s agenda.

I wish to add here, to make my personal standpoint absolutely clear, that I hope we shall soon 'take a positive decision. We must make it our business – and I say this again as German Chancellor – to support all those in Russia who want and are working to secure the reforms needed to turn their country into a state ruled by law and into a free democracy. Moreover – and this needs to be said here too – the Council of Europe in particular has also worked with non-European countries in the past that respect and are committed to the principles of this Organisation.

For this reason I wish to make a second point here and hope to be able to discuss it with you later: I strongly recommend that we all of us here, in the Council of Europe, look together at ways of forging closer ties with non-European countries, and particularly the United States of America.

Thinking of the ninety-five years we have behind us and the few we have left before this century ends, I cannot believe that it would be wise to make the trans-Atlantic bridge narrower. We should, I believe, make it as broad as we can – from the point of view of economic issues, the environment, security policy, cultural matters and scientific co-operation.

Ladies and gentlemen, right from the beginning the Council of Europe has also seen as one of its tasks the need to keep alive and cultivate an awareness of Europe’s cultural unity. Because of unemployment and, in many cases, mass unemployment, social deprivation and hunger in many parts of the world, one of the most important issues for many people is, of course, an economic one, namely the need to have a job and earn their daily bread. This also applies especially in connection with the ecological challenges we face.

We must not allow the treasures of nature, the gifts of God’s Creation, to be ruined in our generation. At the same time, I should like to warn against our losing sight in our everyday activities – in our necessary concern to earn a living – of the cultural dimension of our own existence, the existence of our peoples and our continent.

This century in particular, with its long roll-call of disasters, has shown us – and we Germans have been taught this by our own history – that a common culture will remain the bond which holds Europe together.

I should therefore like expressly to encourage you in your discussions – and I say this on a day on which you are debating the problems facing OECD – not to lose sight of the cultural dimension of our continent. We should not forget that we come to realise every day that man does not live on bread alone and that the most important and most precious experiences in our private lives have a great deal to do with our cultural environment.

Our aim here must be to achieve pan-European co-operation in important fields, such as school and university education, exchanges in the visual arts and the preservation of our cultural heritage. These sound like very lofty aims, and I should be quite satisfied if, as far as the universities are concerned, we could at least set ourselves the goal of restoring the situation that prevailed in 1910. Yes, you heard right: in 1910 one was able to begin one’s studies at Heidelberg, my own university, and then continue at the Sorbonne and in Oxford. And, if one had the necessary money, one could then also carry on studying at Harvard. At that time all the exams one passed were recognised without any need to sit more.

There were no international treaties on the subject and there were no complicated relationships, such as those between the federation and the Lander in Germany and between the Federal Government and other European states. There were no commission meetings but simply mutual trust among the universities and the moral and educational duty to help young people.

If we translate part of the attitude that prevailed at that time into reality today we can at least say to the generation of 1910 that we are just as good now as you were then. This would be an enormous step forward.

Europe’s cultural identity is, of course, reflected in the diversity of its languages. You would naturally expect the German Chancellor at least to say a sentence or two on this subject. Those who do not have the wrong picture of this Chancellor.

We have two official languages here, and I think it is also time for those who find it difficult to accept to realise that the desire to give German parity at the Council of Europe is not just any wish but a very important one that we Germans are expressing here.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today no part of what will be important for the future of coming generations can be achieved by one state alone by applying the old-style thinking of the nation-state, nor will it be achieved tomorrow and, even less, the day after tomorrow.

This is the historical experience of an entire century. If you look at all the great challenges facing us – unemployment, safeguarding Europe’s economic position in a situation of increasing international competition, for example in Asia and other continents, improvements in environmental protection – I much prefer to say the preservation of God’s Creation – combating cross-border crime, a challenge that is greater than many people understand and has become one of the biggest dangers confronting our continent – then you realise that we are forced to work together.

Much of this was said as long ago as 1949 and was mentioned in the Statute of the Council of Europe. Honesty requires us, in my opinion, to repeat that the dreamers of yesterday have proved to be the realists of today and that he who dreams of Europe need not worry about being called a dreamer, because history will prove him right.

Ladies and gentlemen, without the Council of Europe – this needs to be said in this Chamber, since the Council is not alone in using it – the European Community, now the European Union, could not have been established.

The European Union’s Intergovernmental Conference will be starting next year. Under the Italian and Irish presidencies, it will run through the rest of 1996 and will then, I very much hope, conclude under the Dutch presidency in the first half of 1997.

The moment of truth has now come, and many of the things that are still vague must be made definite.

We now have a choice between building the European home and failing in the eyes of history.

I do not believe that the chances we now have, in spite of all the difficulties, will return in the foreseeable future. We know from the philosophy of history that historical phases are often divided into three: one phase in which events develop, a short phase in which decisions are taken – which often goes unnoticed by the peoples concerned – and a long phase in which peoples experience or suffer from the consequences of these decisions.

I am firmly convinced that we are now in the short decision-making phase. Today – five years before the turn of the millennium – the necessary decisions must be taken. The success of the intergovernmental conference depends, amongst other things, on our having the idea of a common Europe, an awareness of the unity of Europe, a European identity.

When I speak about a European identity I do not mean something that contrasts with our national identity. It is one of the great misunderstandings to believe one can give up one’s national identity in order to take on a European one. Both belong together.

Germany remains my fatherland, and Europe is my future. There is no contradiction in this. It is complementary to the historical thinking of our time. This is why the great European debate now taking place is primarily about these core concepts.

I should like to see a good deal of intellectual openness, in accordance with European traditions, and not the narrow-minded attitudes one unfortunately often encounters.

We also want close partnerships with the neighbouring regions in eastern, south-eastern and southern Europe, because our future also depends on their economic and political stability. The European Union has concluded or drawn up agreements with our partners in central, south-eastern and eastern Europe, especially with those states that have the prospect of joining and wish to do so.

There must not be anything automatic about this process: the countries and peoples concerned must themselves wish to join. However, we must not turn the European Union into a European fortress either. More than anything else, the countries themselves must decide about their future. The policy of reform is also a policy of joining Europe and there must not be any short-cuts.

We want a wider pan-European security system. We want to expand Nato eastwards and, at the same time, establish a sound, unambiguous security partnership with Russia and Ukraine that is acceptable for all parties, for we do not want to erect any new walls in the area of military security either.

Nearly five years ago, we adopted the Charter of Paris. I am concerned that we are still unable to implement its principles throughout Europe. There are still ethnic and religious hatred and the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities.

The terrible images of suffering and death that reach us daily from the former Yugoslavia are not simply pictures of one of the greatest tragedies of the present time. They are also a warning and reminder that it is only by uniting Europe that we can avoid relapsing into barbarism in the twenty-first century.

There are many reasons for building the European home, but the most important thing for me is that we Europeans should live together in peace and freedom in the twenty-first- century and never fall back into that barbaric era which we have left behind us.

This also means that Europe needs the spirit of dialogue and the chance to engage in that dialogue across denominational and religious borders today more than ever before. Our aim must be to build an ecumenical bridge, in the broadest sense of the word, from the monasteries and convents of Ireland to the churches and cathedrals of Kyev and Moscow. We must preserve the positive aspects of our European heritage, the product of hundreds of years of development. I do not only mean Europe’s great masterpieces of literature, music or painting, nor its unique architectural monuments. I am referring in particular to the spirit, the cultural inspiration, that gave shape to these epochs and these works of art, lending the latter a timeless magnificence and beauty that transcends national borders.

In this spirit, classical philosophy and Humanism, the rational thinking of the Age of Enlightenment and Christianity, with its profound formative influence, all flow together. This, ladies and gentlemen, constitutes our common origin; it has shaped our awareness as Europeans. The idea of European unity can be neither understood nor implemented in the future without the system of values that we all have in common, a system based on the uniqueness of the human being, on respect for life, on respect for human dignity and on individual rights and freedoms.

In western Europe we have lived in peace for fifty years. For us Germans this is the longest period of peace in our recent history. Konrad Adenauer’s wish, which he expressed in the first statement of his government’s policies in 1949, that we might live in peace and friendship with all our neighbours, has come true.

The ceremonies in May this year marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the second world war made it clear that we must not forget and bury our history. We must be capable of learning from it. In this spirit and with this awareness, we must direct our thoughts and actions to the future of a united and peaceful Europe. Then we shall be armed against any relapse into past ways.

I say this as a warning to us all: the spectres of chauvinism and fundamentalism are not to be found only in the Balkans or across the Mediterranean. If we want to preserve peace and freedom we must make the process leading to a united Europe irreversible.

We need a weatherproof European house with a strong roof that can accommodate all European peoples according to their needs, and I hope that our American friends can have a permanent right of residence in this house. We want the political integration of Europe; we do not want a kind of advanced free- trade zone of the kind some people doubtless have in mind.

However, anyone who is aware of history, especially economic history, knows that no continent can be kept together with a common currency alone. This Europe needs a political roof and practical solidarity, even at times when an unfavourable wind is blowing.

People keep saying that European unity is not making any progress and that, indeed, Europeans are sceptical and tired. I hear this every day. If people are looking for a lesson in faint-heartedness and a lack of willingness to shape the future they occupy themselves with European matters. Anyone who has spent a long time on European committees, from nine in the morning until two the next morning, may have sufficient grounds for despair.

At the end of the war I was fifteen years old. This was fifty years ago. I experienced a declaration of belief in Europe – I have already said this in this Assembly – for the first time as a 17-year-old not far from here on the Alsace-Palatinate border. As a group of grammar school pupils from Alsace and the Palatinate, we pulled out posts marking the border and sang European songs. We were all certain that “Europe” had arrived. It was still a long way off. The posts were rammed back in and we were chased back across the border.

Today, for our children’s generation “Europe” is more or less taken for granted. If you go to the Charles Bridge in Prague in the summer or the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Piccadilly Circus in London, the Spanish Steps in Rome or the Rhine valley in Germany you will meet thousands of young people from all over Europe – and I say this as a warning to us and to my generation – who are far ahead of us in their thinking and with their hopes, their feelings and, I believe, their actions.

It is true that the peoples of our continent are very different, but it is precisely this diversity that gives us a fantastic opportunity. We do not want a monochrome Europe; we want the whole range of colours our continent has to offer. Europe’s hallmark must be – diversity, not uniformity. We benefit both in our every day political activities and culturally from the conflict between uniformity and living diversity.

Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that we can go into this European future together. It is worthwhile working for this objective; it is, not least, also worthwhile if you consider the young people in Europe. It is their future that is at stake. This is all about the young generation we see growing up in Europe who – and I say this as a German whose family has lost a son in every war – for the first time ever has the chance not to have to go to war and to be able to live in peace and freedom in the twenty-first century.

If we face up to this challenge there will be no reason for anyone to be faint-hearted. This Assembly, too, will also have its important role to play tomorrow and in the future. I wish you and us every success in this venture.