‘Even if the empire founded by Charlemagne did not last long, many of its ideas survived to become the basis of progress. In this way Rome and Aachen are directly connected. The ideals which so closely unite both cities form the nucleus of our culture, around which have gradually developed during the course of centuries all those principles which we today wish not only to defend and protect but also to perfect, to make ever more effective and to spread for the benefit of mankind. […] For us Europeans, therefore, who belong to one and the same culture, a united Europe does not mean a material comparison of the various states, but rather the erection of harmonious, political, economic and social entity, the bearer of a single culture’