Speaker Valéry Giscard d’Estaing on the laureate:

‘Your election as the chairperson of the European Parliament was positively greeted by all. You knew how to move your institution into the center of the deciding process of the Union with dignity, balance and effective action. […] Above all you were among the first in the circle who paved the way for the ten new […] members of the EU. Your unfailing visits to the capital cities of former candidate countries showed the public opinion of these states that the European Parliament as a democratic institution shares the great intention of a united Europe—for the first time in history—within its geographic borders.’