Laurent Fabius Eu Quotations

I am a partisan and artisan of Europe. But I draw the lessons of my experience in government.

The single currency should allow the European Union, and therefore France, to balance its monetary strength with the United States. It should help us adjust to the development of China.

We on the left who are pro-European and Internationalist wish to unite the peoples under a social model.

This revision of the Constitution will not be perfect. But at least the Constitution will not be inflexible. It will be a step towards the Social Europe which we wish.

But Maastricht was not the end of history. It was a first step towards a Europe of growth, of employment, a social Europe. That was the vision of Francois Mitterrand. We are far from that now.

There are 20 million unemployed and what does the Constitution offer us in the Europe of 25, 27 and soon to be 30: policies of unrestricted competition to the detriment of production, wages, research and innovation.

If the US economic landing is soft there will be no consequences (for Europe).

Thanks to the euro, our pockets will soon hold solid evidence of a European identity. We need to build on this, and make the euro more than a currency and Europe more than a territory... In the next six months, we will talk a lot about political union, and rightly so. Political union is inseparable from economic union. Stronger growth and Euorpean integration are related issues. In both areas we will take concrete steps forward.

I think there will be talks between the banks and the unions. But the introduction of the euro is a historic act,

But with this last enlargement Europe has changed its nature. The new countries are diverse. The old methods will no longer work.

I have always conceived of the construction of Europe as a movement which permits slowly and surely an upwards social and economic harmonisation.

Very often we use the word historical but it's not historical. This time it is, because I think this is the first time 12 nations, 12 large nations, decide to join their currency, their sovereignty, and to have the same currency. And it's not only a question of a new currency, it's a new stage in the building up of the European Union.

Europe is viewed as being the steady and growing element of the whole system,

At the same time the Constitution sets in stone the Stability Pact and risks preventing member States from implementing a policy of growth. So we are not able to do things at the European or the national level.

Italy is one of the pillars of Europe and one could be quite worried, ... So I think there is a need for a clarification at the level of the heads of government.