DIFFERENT VOICES

Date: 26/10/1995

“The Commission does not represent national interests. It takes account of national sensibilities and that is very different.”

Commission President Jacques Santer speaking at the Jean Monnet conference on The Future of Europe.

“The voice of Europe will only be heard in world affairs if there is a single voice. Otherwise it will not be heard at all.”

Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek giving his assessment of the common foreign and security policy in operation in a speech in Maastricht.

“Without significant progress towards political union, which goes hand in glove with monetary union, there will be no enlargement. To miss the Union's rendezvous with history, to fail in extending the experience of integration to Europe as a whole, would be a political disaster.”

Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek, from the same speech.

“The spectre of the European institutions as a gigantic bureaucratic machine, churning out an endless stream of unnecessary, incomprehensible rules, seems to have a certain hold on the imagination of some people in business and politics today, not to mention the even more powerful imagination of some members of the press. If true it would indeed be a terrible judgement ... However I am here to tell you that this image does not correspond to reality. “

Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti speaking at a European Parliament meeting on regulation and deregulation.

Failure of the EMU project would be a “major political, incalculable, economic risk”.

Bundesbank board member Peter Schmidhuber in a speech to Munich industrialists.

“All traditional activities of the Community should be decided by qualified majority vote. Otherwise decision-making in the enlarged Union could not function ... This is a test for the present member states. If they consider enlargement important, they will broaden the area of qualified majority decisions.”

Budget Commissioner Erkki Liikanen speaking at a conference in Tallinn on Estonia and the EU.

“Education, social security and regional assistance are not only costs, they are preconditions for the commercial viability, willingness to change and innovation which help to secure Europe's position in the world.”

Regional Affairs Commissioner Monika Wulf Mathies speaking on the future of European regional policy.