Talk by Chancellor Scholz at Karls University on 29 August 2022 in Prague
Monday, August 29, 2022 in Prague
Dear Mrs. Princier Professor Králkov,
Women and gentlemen, the principals and members of the faculties,
Mr Mr. Bek,
Excellence,
Dear students,
ladies and gentlemen!
Thank you for the kind invitation! It is a great honour to be able to talk to you about the future in this historic place, almost under the eyes of the founder of this old-venerable institution ϧ about our future, which connects to me with a word: Europe.
There is no more suitable place for this than the city of Prague than this university with its almost 700-year heritage. „Ad fontes, according to the reputation of the great humanists of the European Renaissance. Those who are open to the sources of Europe, whose way inevitably leads here, into this city, whose heritage and shape are as European as that of hardly any other city of our continent. Every American or Chinese tourist running up to the Hradschin over the Karlsbrücke is immediately clear. That's why they are here because they find what Europe makes for them in this city, between their medieval castles and bridges, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish prayers and cemeteries, Gothic cathedrals and Art Nouveau Palais, glass high houses and specialist guests and in the language waters of the old town, what Europe makes for them: all the largest diversity in the most narrow space.
So if Prague is in the small one, then the Karlsuniversität is something like the Chronistin of our light and shadows so rich European history. Whether her founder, Emperor Karl IV., understood himself as a European, I cannot say. His biography suggests this: born with the old Bohemian first name „Vclav, trained in Bologna and Paris, son of a ruler from the home of Luxembourg and a Habsburgerin, German emperor, King of Bohemia and Italy. The fact that at „of his university, of course, Bohemia, Poland, Bavaria and Saxony, alongside students from France, Italy and England, is only consistent.
But because this university is in Europe, it has also suffered the lows of European history: religious zeal, the division along linguistic and cultural borders, the ideological equality during the dictatorships of the 20th century. Germans wrote the darkest chapter: the closure of the university by the national socialist occupiers, the shooting of protesting students, the deportation and murder of thousands of university nationals in German concentration camps. These crimes are hurting and shaming us Germans to this day. That is why I am here, especially as we often forget that inequality, suffering and dictatorship for many citizens of Central Europe did not end with the German occupation and the destruction of World War II.
One of the many great spirits that this university has produced has already reminded us of it at the Cold War. In 1983, Milan Kundera described the „tragedy of Central Europe, such as Poland, Czechs, Slovaks, Balten, Hungary, Romanians, Bulgarians and Yugoslava after World War II () and found that they were in the East that they had disappeared from the map of the West. We also deal with this heritage #8209; especially those of us who were on the western side of the Iron Curtain, not only because this heritage is part of European history and thus our common history as a European, but also because the experience of citizens in Central and Eastern Europe is the feeling of being forgotten and abandoned behind an iron curtain; until today, by the way, in the way, in the way, in the debates about our future, about Europe.
In these days, the question is again where the separation line will be between this free Europe and a neoimperial autocracy. I spoke of a time after the Russian robbery on Ukraine in February. Putin's Russia wants to draw new borders by force ‑ something we never wanted to experience in Europe again. The brutal robbery on Ukraine is also an attack on the European security order. We are opposed to this with all determination. For this, we need our own strength #8209; as a single state, in association with our transatlantic partners, but also as the European Union.
This united Europe was born as a inward-looking peace project. Never again war between his Member States, the goal was. Today, it is up to us to develop this promise of peace by enabling the European Union to secure its security, independence and stability against challenges from the outside. This is Europe's new peace task, ladies and gentlemen. This is what most citizens expect from Europe, in the West and in the east of our continent.
It is therefore a happy concern that in these times with the Czech Republic, a country holds the EU presidency, which has long recognized the importance of this task and leads Europe in the right direction. The Czech Republic has the full support of Germany and I look forward to working with Prime Minister Fiala to give the right European answers to the timetables.
The first of them is that we do not take Russia's attack on peace in Europe. We don't just watch women, men and children kill, how free countries are wiped off the map and disappear behind walls or iron curtains. We don't want to go back to the 19th century, or 20th century, with his conquest wars and his totalitarian excesses.
Our Europe is united in peace and freedom, open to all European nations that share our values. Above all, however, it is the lived rejection of imperialism and autocracy. The European Union works not through over and underorder, but by recognition of diversity, by the level of eye between its members, by pluralism and the balance of different interests.
Putin is exactly this united Europe a thorn in the eye of this, because it does not fit into its world view, in which smaller countries have to join a handful of European major powers. It is all the more important that we defend our idea of Europe together. That is why we support the attacked Ukraine: economic, financial, political, humanitarian and also militaryly. Germany has been fundamentally diverted in recent months. We will maintain this support, reliable and as long as necessary.
This applies to the reconstruction of the destroyed country, which will be a power effort for generations. This requires international vote and a smart, resilient strategy. That is why an expert conference will be on which Commission President of der Leyen and I will invite Ukraine and its partners from around the world to Berlin on 25 October.
In the next few weeks and months, Ukraine will also receive new, state-of-the-art weapons, air defense and radar systems, for example, or reconnaissance drones. Our last package of arms supplies alone has a value of more than 600 million euros. Our goal is modern Ukrainian armed forces that can permanently defend their country.
But we are all allowed to deliver not just what we can do to Kiev, which we can do. Here, too, we need more planning and coordination. Together with the Netherlands, we have therefore launched an initiative aimed at a permanent and reliable division of work between all Ukraine's partners. For example, I can imagine that Germany takes particular responsibility for building Ukrainian artillery and air defense. On such a system of coordinated support, we should quickly agree and thus support our commitment to a free, independent Ukraine in the long term, as we did to the European Council in June when we closed „Yes. Yes, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, in perspective also Georgia, and of course the six states of the Western Balkans are among us, the free, democratic part of Europe. Their EU accession is in our interest.
I could be demographic or economically based, or, in the sense of Milan Kunderas, culturally, ethical and moral. All of these reasons are. But what is more clear than ever today is the geopolitical dimension of this decision. Real policy in the 21st century does not mean bringing values and sacrificing partners in favour of lazy compromises. Real policy must be called to involve friends and values partners, support them in order to be stronger in global competition through cooperation.
That's how I understand Emmanuel Macron's proposal from a European political community. Of course, we have the Council of Europe, OSZE, OECD, the ÖSTSTAGBT, the European Economic Area and NATO. All of these are important forums where we Europeans are working closely together beyond the EU's borders. But what is missing is a regular exchange at political level, a forum in which we discuss EU leaders and leaders and our European partners once or twice a year the central issues affecting our continent as a whole: security, energy, climate or connectivity.
Such a merger is important to me ‑ is not an alternative to the upcoming EU enlargement; because we have been speaking with our candidates for the countries of the Western Balkans for almost 20 years, and these words must finally follow action.
In recent years, many have rightly called for a stronger, more sovereign, geopolitical European Union, after a Union that knows its place in the history and geography of the continent and acts strongly and closed in the world. The historical decisions of recent months have brought us closer to this goal. With unprecedented determination and speed so far, we have imposed incisive sanctions on Putin's Russia. Without the earlier usual controversies, we have taken up millions of women, men and children from Ukraine who are looking for protection. The Czech Republic and other countries in Central Europe have proved their wide heart and great solidarity. This gives you all my respect.
Elsewhere, too, we have refilled the word solidarity with life. We are working closely together on energy supply. Only a few weeks ago, we decided to use European gas. Both are essential with a view to the coming winter, and Germany is very grateful for this solidarity.
They all know what determination Germany is about to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies. We are building alternative capacities for the import of liquid gas or oil, and we are doing so in solidarity by also considering the needs of inland countries such as the Czech Republic. I promised Prime Minister Fiala during his visit to Berlin in May, and we will certainly continue to reaffirm this solidarity at our meeting today.
Because the pressure to change on us Europeans will grow, including regardless of Russia's war and its consequences. In a world with eight in the future, with ten‑ billion people are far too small for each of our European national states to enforce their interests and values alone. It is all the more important for us to create a closed European Union.
The more important are strong partners, especially the United States. That today with President Biden, a convincing transatlantic is sitting in the White House is a luck for all of us. What essential value the transatlantic partnership has, we have seen in recent months. NATO is more closed than ever, and we make political decisions in transatlantic shoulder. But with everything that President Biden has just done for our partnership, we know that Washington's view is also more focused on competition with China and the Asia-Pacific. This will be the same for future American governments, perhaps even more.
In a multipolar world, and this is the world of the 21st century, it is not enough to maintain only existing partnerships as valuable as they are. We will invest in new partnerships #$8209; in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Political and economic diversification, by the way, this is also part of the answer to the question of how we deal with the world power China and redeem the triple sound from „partners, competitors and rivals.
The other part of this answer is that we need to bring the weight of Europe to be much more effective. Together we have the best chance to make and shape the 21st century in our, in European sense, ‑ as a European Union of 27, 30 or 36 states with more than 500 million free and equal citizens, with the world's largest single market, with leading research facilities, innovations and innovative companies, with stable democracies, with social care and a public infrastructure that has been in the world. Looking for their same. That is the claim I link to a geopolitical Europe.
The experience of recent months shows that blockades can be overcome. European rules can be changed ‑ if necessary, also at a rush pace. Even European contracts are not cut into stone. If we conclude together that the contracts must be adapted to make Europe progress, then we should do so.
But abstract discussions about this do not continue to lead us. It is important that we look at what needs to be changed and then deciding specifically how we are doing this. „Form follows function: This claim of modern architecture belongs to European politics as a principle.
The fact that Germany has to provide proposals for this and move itself is on my hand for me. So I am here, too, in the capital of the EU Presidency, to present some of my ideas on the future of our Union. Ideas are these, well-noticed, offers, think-clocks ‑ no finished German solutions.
Germany's responsibility for Europe is for me to develop solutions together with our neighbours and then decide together. I do not want an EU of exclusive clubs or directors, but an EU of equal members.
I add quite explicitly that the EU continues to grow towards the east is a profit for all of us. Germany as a country in the middle of the continent will do everything to bring East and West, North and South together in Europe.
In this sense, I would also ask you to understand the following four considerations.
First, I stand up for the enlargement of the European Union to the states of the West Balkans, Ukraine, Moldova and in perspective also around Georgia.
But a European Union with 30 or 36 states will look different from our today's Union. That's clear. Europe's middle moves east, could be said to historian Karl Schlögel. In this extended Union, differences between Member States will increase in political interests, economic power or social systems. Ukraine is not Luxembourg, and Portugal looks differently at the world's challenges than North Macedonia.
First of all, the candidates are called for to meet the criteria for accession. We will support them as best possible. But the EU itself must also make it fit for this great enlargement. This will take time, and that's why we have to start with it now. In the past round of enlargements, reforms in the countries of accession have also gone hand-in-hand with institutional reforms within the European Union. That's how it will be this time.
We cannot get out of this debate ‑ at least if we are serious about the accession perspective. And we need to be serious about our accession promises. Because this is only how we achieve stability on our continent. So let's talk about reforms.
In the EU Council, at the level of ministers, there is a need for rapid and pragmatic action. This must be secured in the future. Where unanimity is necessary today, however, with every other member state, the risk that a single country will prevent everyone else from the previous agreement with its veto. Those who believe others denies European reality.
I have therefore proposed that this would be gradually switched to majority decisions in common foreign policy, but also in other areas such as tax policy, should be able to make a strong impact on Germany. We must be aware of this: keeping on the principle of unanimity only works as long as the pressure of action is low, but at the end of the time, this is no longer the case.
The alternative to majority decisions would not be to hold on to the status quo, but to be a preview in increasingly different groups, a jungle of different rules and hard-handle opt-ins and opt-outs. This would not be differentiated integration, but it would be an unclear wildlife growth and an invitation to all those who want to bet against a united geopolitical Europe and to play against each other. I don't want to do that!
My advertising for majority decisions has been criticised occasionally and I can understand the concerns of the smaller Member States. In the future, every country must be heard with its concerns ‑ anything else would be a treason of the European idea. And because I take these concerns very seriously, I say, "Let's look for compromises together! For example, I could imagine first beginning with majority decisions in the areas where it is particularly important that we speak with one voice $$䂳 in sanctions policy, for example, or on human rights issues. I also promote the courage for constructive abstention. Here I see us Germans and everyone else in the duty who are convinced of majority decisions. If as many as possible follow this idea, we will be much closer to a world-political geopolitical Europe.
The European Parliament will not pass on reforms. The contracts provide for good reason for a maximum number of 751 MEPs. But we will exceed this number when new countries join $$8209; at least if we simply extend Parliament by the seats that would be given to the new Member States according to the rules so far. If we do not want to inflate the European Parliament, we need a new balance on its composition, including including the democratic principle, which should be in terms of the same weight.
Finally, the European Commission is also concerned about the right balance between representation and functionality. A Commission with 30 or 36 commissioners is meeting the limits of their working capacity. If we also note that every Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for their own policy area, then the #82099; to remind another great son of this city‑ to cafkaec conditions.
I also know how much value all Member States are on being represented by „their Commissioner or their Commissioner in Brussels. This is also important, because it shows that in Brussels everyone is sitting at the table. Everyone decides together. That is why I do not want to shake the principle of #A Commissioner or a Commissioner per country. But what does the fact that two commissioners are together responsible for a Directorate-General? This is not only working in decision-making bodies of companies worldwide day after day. There are also such solutions in the governments of some Member States, both in the representation of the outside and in the internal distribution of juries.
So we're looking for such compromises ‑ for a working Europe!
The second thought I want to share with you is related to a term that we have often discussed in recent years: European sovereignty.
I'm not about semantics. At the heart of European sovereignty means that we become more independent in all fields, that we take more responsibility for our own security, that we work together even more closely and stand together to enforce our values and interests worldwide.
Not only Russia's attack on the European peace order forces us to do so. I have already mentioned the dependencies we have gone into. Russian energy imports are a particularly obvious example of this, but by no means the only one. Take the bottlenecks in the delivery of semiconductors: we have to end such one-sided dependencies as soon as possible!
Europe owes its wealth to trade. We must not leave this field to others. That is why we also need further, sustainable free trade agreements and an ambitious trade agenda.
When we talk about the supply of raw materials or rare earths, we think above all about the countries of origin far from Europe. But one thing is often overlooked: much of the Lithium, cobalt, magnesium or nickels that our businesses are so urgently dependent on is long here in Europe. In every mobile phone, in every car battery, there are valuable raw materials. So when we talk about economic sovereignty, we should also talk about using this potential much more. The technologies for this are already there today. What we need are common standards for entering a real European cycle economy #‑ I call it: a strategic update of our single market.
Economic independence is not Autarkie. This cannot be the goal of Europe, which has always benefited from open markets and trade and continues to benefit. But we also need a „game plan, something like a strategy made in Europe 2030.
For me, this means that where Europe is located in comparison to Silicon Valley, Shenzhen, Singapore or Tokyo, we want to fight back to the top.
We have already made progress with the chips and semiconductors such as our industry, thanks to a real European power effort. Only recently, for example, Intel has announced billions of investments in France, Poland, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain ‑ a huge step towards a new generation of Microchips made in Europe. And that's only the beginning: with companies like Infineon, Bosch, NXP or GlobalFoundries, we are working on projects that technologically lead Europe to the world's top.
Because our claim will not be limited to only making things in Europe that can be produced elsewhere. I want a Europe that is a pioneer in key technologies.
Let's take the mobility of the future. Data will play the decisive role in ‑ for autonomous driving, in networking different means of transport or in intelligent control of traffic flows. That is why we need a single, cross-border European space for mobility data as soon as possible. With the Mobility Data Space, we started in Germany. Let's link it to all Europe! He's open to everyone who wants to move something. This is how we can become a pioneer worldwide.
When we talk about digitization, we have to think about it, which includes space, as well as space, because sovereignty depends on skills in space in the digital age. An independent access to space, modern satellites and megacolleges $‑: This is crucial not only for our safety, but also for environmental protection, agriculture and not least for digitization, keyword: Europe-wide broadband Internet.
Commercial players and start-ups play an increasingly larger role ‑ we experience this in the United States. For strong, competitive European space space, we also need to promote such innovative companies, as well as the established players. Because only this is how we have a chance that the next company like SpaceX will come from Europe.
Last but not least, our great goal of becoming climate-neutral as a European Union by 2050 is a huge chance: to be on this field decisive for the future of humanity. And by developing technologies and leading to the market maturity that are needed and used worldwide.
I think in the field of electricity to build the network and storage infrastructure for a real energy internal market that supplies Europe with hydropower from the north, wind from the coasts and solar energy from the south$$$‑ reliable, in summer as in winter.
I think of a European hydrogen network that connects producers and consumers and triggers a European electrolysis boom. Because only with hydrogen, the industry becomes climate-neutral.
I think of a network of electric charging columns in each of our countries #‑ for electric cars, but also for trucks.
And I am thinking of investing in new climate-neutral fuels for air transport and in the infrastructure necessary for this, for example at airports 䂳 so that the goal of climate-neutral aviation remains not a dream, but becomes a reality, starting from Europe.
This ecological and digital transformation of our economy will require significant private investment. The basis for this is a strong and liquefied EU capital market and a stable financial system. The capital market and banking union are therefore central to our future prosperity.
Ladies and gentlemen, all these are steps towards European sovereignty.
Let me take another point out because it plays a decisive role in the subject of sovereignty and with a view to the war in eastern Europe: we need a better interaction of our defence efforts in Europe.
Compared to the US, there is a multiple different weapons systems in the EU. This is inefficient, because this is how our soldiers have to train on many different systems, and maintenance and repair is also more expensive and expensive.
The past uncoordinated shrinking of European arms and defense budgets should now be a coordinated growth of European skills. In addition to joint production and procurement, our companies are necessary to work together much more closely on arms projects. This makes an even closer vote at European level. It is therefore high time that not only the Minister of Agriculture and Environment meet in Brussels. In these times, we need an independent advice from the defence ministers.
In order to improve the cooperation of our armed forces, we already have some instruments on our hands. In addition to the European Defence Agency and the Defence Fund, I am particularly thinking about cooperation as it is already practiced in the organisation for the management of joint arms projects. Just as we have started with the free borders in the Schengen area at the time, this organization can become a nuclear for a Europe of common defense and armor.
We will have to review all our national reservations and regulations, such as the use and export of jointly produced systems. But this must be possible ‑ in the interest of our security and sovereignty, which also depends on European arms capabilities.
NATO remains the guarantee of our security. It is also true that any improvement, any unification of European defence structures in the EU framework strengthens NATO.
We should learn lessons from the events in Afghanistan last summer. In the future, the EU must be able to react quickly and effectively. Together with other EU partners, Germany will therefore ensure that the EU's planned fast intervention force is operational in 2025 and then also its core. It takes a clear leadership structure for this. We therefore need to provide the permanent EU command centre and in the medium term a real EU headquarters with everything that is needed financially, personally and technically. Germany will face this responsibility if we run the fast intervention force in 2025.
Finally, we need to make our policymakers more moving in times of crisis. For me, this means that the scope for this in the EU contracts fully exploit it. Yes, that also explicitly means taking much more the opportunity to trust the stakes of a group of Member States willing to, so to speak, a coalition of the decided. This is EU labour division in the best sense.
It is already decided that Germany will support Lithuania with a fast-ready brigade and NATO with further forces in high-level readiness. Slovakia, among other things, support air defense. The Czech Republic and other countries are compensating for the release of Soviet tanks to Ukraine with tanks of German construction. At the same time, we have agreed that our armed forces are working much more closely. The 100 billion euros with which we are modernising the Bundeswehr in Germany in the coming years also strengthen European and transatlantic security.
We have a significant need for follow-up in Europe to defend against threats from the air and from space. Therefore, in Germany, we will invest very much in our air defense in the coming years. All these skills will be used in the NATO framework. At the same time, Germany will be able to make this future air defense from the very beginning so that our European neighbors can also participate if it is desired, such as Poland, Balten, Dutch, Czechs, Slovaks or our Scandinavian partners. A jointly built air defense system in Europe would not only be more cost-effective and efficient than if each of us builds its own expensive and highly complex air defense; it would be a security gain for the whole of Europe and an excellent example of what we think when we talk about strengthening NATO's European pillar.
The third major order of action I see for Europe also follows from the turn of time, and it goes far beyond. Putin's Russia defines itself for the foreseeable future in opposition to the European Union. Every disagreement between us, any weakness will take advantage of Putin. Other autocrats followed that. Just remember how the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko tried last year to put us politically under pressure with the suffering of thousands of refugees and migrants from the Middle East. China and others also use the open flanks we offer to Europeans if we are disagreed.
What follows for Europe may be so summarized: we have to close the series, overcome old conflicts and find new solutions. Let's only take the two fields that have caused the greatest tensions between Member States in recent years, migration and financial policy.
We have proven that we can make progress in migration policy after the Russian attack on Ukraine. For the first time, the EU has activated the temporary protection directive. Behind this bulky term, for millions of Ukrainians, a piece of normality away from home, a fast, safe residence permit to work the opportunity to visit the school or a university like this here.
In the future, people will come to Europe, whether to seek protection from war and persecution, whether in search of work and a better life. Europe remains a longing place for millions around the world. On the one hand, this is a great proof of the attractiveness of our continent, but it is also a reality that we have to deal with Europeans. This means making migration ahead, rather than always adhoc to crises. This also means reducing irregular migration while also allowing legal migration, because we need immigration. We are currently experiencing at our airports, in our hospitals and in many businesses that we are missing from qualified workers at all corners and ends.
Some points seem central to me.
First of all. We need more binding partnerships with countries of origin and transit, at the level of attention. If we offer workers more legal ways to Europe, in return, the willingness in the countries of origin must increase to allow their own nationals without a right to stay.
Second. A working migration policy includes external border protection, which is effective and meets our legal standards. The Schengen area, the boundless travel, life and work, stands and falls with this protection. Schengen is one of the biggest achievements of the European Union and we should protect and expand it. This includes closing existing gaps. Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria meet all technical requirements for full membership. I will work to make them become full members.
Third. Europe needs an asylum system that is solidarity and crisis-proof, and it is our duty to offer a safe home to people who are in need of protection. Under the French Presidency, we have agreed on a gradual approach in recent months. Now the European Parliament should also be involved. The Czech presidency can rely on our full support in negotiations with Parliament.
Finally, we should give those who are legally in the EU as protection rights to be entitled to do a job in another Member State to bring their skills where they are needed. Because we are not naive, we must also prevent abuse, for example if there is no will to work. If we get that, then free movement does not lead to the overload of social systems. Then we will continue to ensure the acceptance of this great European freedom.
Ladies and gentlemen, the field that has been most deprivating us Europeans in recent years, was fiscal policy. However, the historical building programme adopted in the Coronacrisis marks a turning point. For the first time, we have given a European response together and supported the national investment and reform programmes by EU means. We have agreed to invest together to strengthen our economies. This also helps us in the current crisis.
Ideology has deviated pragmatism. We should be guided by this when it comes to the question of how we continue to develop our common rules beyond the coronary crisis. It is clear that a common currency area needs common rules that can be respected and reviewed. This creates trust and allows solidarity in need.
Now the crises of recent years have increased debt levels in all Member States. That is why we need to understand how to reduce these high debt levels. This agreement must be binding, allow growth and be politically mediatable. At the same time, it must allow all EU states to master the transformation of our economies through investment.
At the beginning of the month, as a German government, we presented our ideas on the further development of European debt rules. They follow this logic. We would like to talk openly to all our European partners, unbiased, without any any of the blame. We want to discuss together what a sustainable rule can look like after the time. It's about something very fundamental. It is about giving citizens the certainty that our currency is safe and irreversible, that they can rely on their state and the European Union even in times of crisis.
One of the best examples of how we have succeeded in recent years is the European SURE programme. During the Coronacrisis, we introduced it to secure short work, and more than 30 million citizens have benefited from it throughout the EU, with one in seven workers, one in seven workers who would otherwise have been on the road. By the way, this incentive at European level has succeeded in introducing the success model of short work in Europe. A more robust labour market and healthier companies across Europe are the result. This is how I imagine pragmatic solutions in Europe, even in the future.
Time, that must be for European politics to build bridges rather than to break up trenches. Citizens expect an EU that delivers. The result of the future conference clearly shows this. Citizens expect the EU to be very handproof things, such as more speed on climate change, healthy food, sustainable supply chains or better protection of workers. In short, you expect the „solidarity of the act, from which the 1950 Schuman Declaration was already spoken. It is up to us to reasjustify this solidarity of the act and to adapt to the challenges of the respective time.
In the founding decades of the united Europe, this was mainly to make war between members impossible by increasingly increasingly narrower economic restriction. That this has been done remains the historical merit of our Union. In the meantime, however, the peace project has also become a Europe-wide freedom and justice project. This, in turn, is due to the countries that only later joined our community, to the Spaniards, Greeks and Portuguese, who, after decades of dictatorship, turned to a Europe of freedom and democracy, and then to citizens of Central and Eastern Europe who have overcome the Cold War with their fight for freedom, human rights and justice. Among them were many courageous students at this university, who called for freedom on a dark November evening in 1989 so loud for freedom that it became a revolution. This velvet revolution was a lucky case for Europe.
Peace and freedom, democracy and rule of law, human rights and human dignity, these values of the European Union are our jointly acquired heritage. Especially now, given the renewed threat of freedom, pluralism and democracy that we are experiencing in the east of our continent, we feel this connection very strongly.
States are given the ideals they have emerged from. This sentence applies to states, but it also applies to the EU value community. Because values are constitutional for their continuation, it also affects us all when these values are violated, outside Europe and even more in our interior. This is the fourth thought I want to share with you today.
That is why we are worried about illiberal democracy in the middle of Europe, as if this were not a contradiction. That is why we cannot accept it if right-wing principles are violated and democratic control is rebuilt. To be clear, too, there must be no tolerance in Europe for racism and anti-Semitism. That is why we support the Commission in its commitment to the rule of law. The European Parliament also has great attention to the issue. I am very grateful for that.
We should not refrain from using all the ways available to reduce deficits. Polls show that everywhere, by the way in Hungary and Poland, a large majority of citizens even want a greater commitment to freedom and democracy in their countries. These possibilities include the rule of law under Article 7, and here we must get away from the blocking possibilities. It also seems to me to consistently link payments to the compliance of legal standards, as we have done with the financial framework 2021 to 2027 and the Recovery Fund in the Coronacrisis $$8209; and we should open a new way to initiate infringement proceedings even if we are violated by what is at our core, against our basic values that we have all established in the EU Treaty: people, freedom, democracy, and we would be a new way to do. Equality, the rule of law and the respect of human rights.
At the same time, I wish that we do not have to fight for the rule of law because, in addition to all procedures and sanctions, we need to have an open dialogue at political level on deficits that exist in all countries. The Commission's rule of law with its country-specific recommendations creates a good basis for this. We will closely accompany the implementation of these recommendations and do our own homework. Because the rule of law is a basic value that our Union should be one. Especially in these times, when autocracy challenges our democracies, this is more important than ever.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have already mentioned the courageous students of this university, who started the Samtene Revolution on the evening of 17 November 1989. On the university campus on Albertovstraße, where their protest began, today a small, bronze plaque reminds us of it. Two sentences are on it, and I hope that I will say them quite right: Kdy ‑ kdy ne te? Kdo ‑ kdy ne my?‑ in German: when, if not now? Who, if not us?#8209; here, from Prague, I want to call these two sentences today to all Europeans, those who already live in our Union, and those who hopefully meet us soon. I want to call them to the political leaders, my colleagues with whom we are working for solutions every day in Brussels, Strasbourg or our capitals. It's about our future, which is called Europe. This Europe is called for as never today.
When, if not now that Russia is looking to move the border between freedom and autocraty, do we put the foundation for an extended Union of Freedom, Security and Democracy? When, if not now, do we create a sovereign Europe that can claim in a multipolar world? When, if not now, do we overcome the differences that have been paralyzing and splitting us for years? Who, if not we, could protect and defend Europe's values, inside as far as outward?
Europe is our future and this future is in our hands.
Thank you many.
Gugao translejt
https://www.bundeskanzler.de/bk-de/aktuelles/rede-von-bundeskanzler-scholz-an-der-karls-universitaet-am-29-august-2022-in-prag-2079534
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by Јанош Винету Sun Aug 21, 2022 5:36 pm,
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) as lands with no cultural artefacts worth depicting - just nature - and thus, presumably, populated by tribes of noble savages in need of neocolonial civilising. pic.twitter.com/0nQ6WkAeyf
The next “5 to 10 winters will be difficult” for Europe, warned Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo
European gas and power prices surged to a record today amid Russia supply cut fears
disident
(@PascalLTH) 
