Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the declaration made by French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman that is commonly identified and celebrated as the beginning of a new, supranational form of European cooperation that led ultimately to today’s European Union. Eurocrats get the day off (but accordingly have to work on Armistice Day). I tried this question out on Facebook but it got no answers, so here goes. If the European Union had an equivalent of Mount Rushmore, who would be carved into the granite? The original has four Presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln) so, to tighten things up, Schuman would be excluded. I assume all would agree that Monnet should be up there. But what about Hallstein? Delors? Assuming you’d accept those three, who’d take the fourth place? Sicco Mansholt (earlier architect of the CAP, start of the EMS, first enlargements)? Roy Jenkins (EMU, start of Commission attendance at G8 meetings)? Jacques Santer (Amsterdam, Nice, the euro, but then resignation)? Romano Prodi (Nice, the European Constitution, the physical introduction of the euro)? José Manuel Barroso (Lisbon Treaty, 2004 and 2007 enlargements,…)? Answers, on a postcard, please…
Without doubt you would have Monnet and Schuman, I would also make a strong case for Delors as well.
However, I think it’s important to also acknowledge the democratic nature of Europe and the rights of citizens to participate and to decide the future of Europe by selecting an EP President to sit alongside the ‘bureaucrats’ – maybe Paul-Henri Spaak as the first president of the ECSC (but he was not directly elected), maybe the first elected president (and a women!), Simone Veil?
Looking into the future (20 years maybe?), I think we will see Donald Tusk, Viv Reding and Vaira V??e-Freiberga making a big (and positive) impact on the future of our Union.
Without doubt you would have Monnet and Schuman, I would also make a strong case for Delors as well.
However, I think it’s important to also acknowledge the democratic nature of Europe and the rights of citizens to participate and to decide the future of Europe by selecting an EP President to sit alongside the ‘bureaucrats’ – maybe Paul-Henri Spaak as the first president of the ECSC (but he was not directly elected), maybe the first elected president (and a women!), Simone Veil?
Looking into the future (20 years maybe?), I think we will see Donald Tusk, Viv Reding and Vaira V??e-Freiberga making a big (and positive) impact on the future of our Union.