In this afternoon’s plenary session I was given a generous and moving gift by Béatrice Ouin (French, Workers’ Group). Béatrice had recently been to the Palais de Beaux Arts here in Brussels to listen to a presentation by two veteran MEPs, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Guy Verhofstadt, of their jointly-authored book, For Europe! ‘Europe,’ says the blurb, ‘must once and for all get rid of the navel-gazing of its nation-states. A radical revolution is needed. A large European revolution. And a European federal Union must emerge. A Union that enables Europe to participate in the postnational world of tomorrow. By laziness, cowardice and lack of vision, too many of our Heads of State and Government prefer not to see what is at stake. Let’s wake them up. Let’s confront them with their impotence. And give them no respite until they have taken the European way, the way to a Europe of the future, towards a Europe for Europeans. The era of empty summits and statements is over. Now is the time for action.’ As Béatrice put it to me, ‘If I hadn’t offered it, you wouldn’t have found the time to read it; now you must!’ Her dedication, which I proudly repeat here, is to ‘le plus européen de mes amis britanniques’. Thank you, Béatrice!
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