More than 60 years ago, After the World War. The French For­eign Min­is­ter Robert Schu­man made an his­toric pro­posal lay­ing the foun­da­tions for a united Europe.
“In today’s dif­fi­cult times, it’s impor­tant to reflect on, and seek inspi­ra­tion from, the achieve­ments of the Euro­pean project. Today, Europe is at the cross­roads. Since 2008, the EU was shaken by an unprece­dented finan­cial and eco­nomic cri­sis, but it has to remain united and strong. Europe has been the answer for many prob­lems of the past and con­tin­ues to be the only answer for the prob­lems of today.
In addi­tion to the dif­fi­cult eco­nomic sit­u­a­tion, the Euro­pean project is under attack from the extremes. Extrem­ists from the right and the left are deploy­ing pop­ulist rhetoric and manip­u­la­tive tac­tics which evoke mem­o­ries from the years prior the start of the Euro­pean project.
There­fore, all the part­ners of the Euro­pean project have, now more than ever, the respon­si­bil­ity to explain and to con­vince cit­i­zens that theEU is not the prob­lem — as the extremes claim — but the solu­tion. In this respect, the role of the EPP and all other pro-​European polit­i­cal par­ties will be cru­cial in reach­ing out to Europe’s cit­i­zens. If we truly want to bridge the gap between the EU and the cit­i­zens, the Euro­pean polit­i­cal par­ties must take the lead in the democ­ra­ti­za­tion and politi­ciza­tion process of Europe.
Finally, as Robert Schu­man said on 9 May 1950: ‘Europe will not be made all at once, or accord­ing to a sin­gle plan. It will be built through con­crete achieve­ments’.