“The valuable achievements of the United Europe are not given and taken for granted, but they need constant vigilance and defense by responsible European leaders and conscious citizens,” said President Katerina Sakellaropoulou in her May 9 message.
In a Facebook post, Sakellaropoulou stressed that “the message of May 9 this year is not only the recognition of the historic achievement of decades of peace, democracy, freedom and prosperity of the European Union, nor only the demand for a more and stronger Europe.”
As he points out, “securing European peace now requires investing in a strong, secure, strategically autonomous and united Europe capable of protecting its values and its borders from revisionism and authoritarianism.”
The following is the full message of the President of the Republic on Europe Day:
The historic Declaration of the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, was published on 9 May 1950, leading to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community. Today, 72 years later, we celebrate Europe Day and look back with emotion on the ambitious vision of its founders.
The birth of the then European Community was a brave undertaking of high realism. “Europe will not be created all at once, nor in a single edifice: it will be shaped by concrete achievements that will first create real solidarity,” the Schuman Declaration stressed. Just five years ago, on May 8, 1945, World War II officially ended. Europe Day is the day after “Victory Day in Europe”. The foundations of the union of Europe were built on the ruins of the million caused by fascism and the transcendence of the nationalisms that bloodied the old continent and the world twice in the twentieth century.
Today, humanity is experiencing again the barbarity of a war next to us, which causes untold pain, blood, tears, destruction and death. Our thoughts and anguish are in the struggling people of Ukraine against the Russian invaders, in the free besieged of the Azofstal factory, in the martyrdom Mariupol. To the millions of people who, like all of us, wanted to live a normal life of peace and freedom, and now they are forced to fight for the salvation of their homeland or to take the road of refuge, not knowing if and when they will be able to return.
The European Union was created for just that: to never again see cities on our continent being razed to the ground by bombings, families being torn apart by war, plains being turned into cemeteries of dead soldiers and civilians.
The message of this May 9th is not only the recognition of the historic achievement of the decades of peace, democracy, freedom and prosperity of the European Union, but also not only the call for a more and stronger Europe. It is also a reminder that the valuable acquis of a united Europe is not a given and self-evident, but needs constant vigilance and defense by responsible European leaderships and conscious citizens.
“Securing European peace now requires investing in a strong, secure, strategically autonomous and united Europe capable of protecting its values and its borders from revisionism and authoritarianism.”
Source: Capital
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