‘Sometimes it is said that the Eastern expansion of the European Union is Germany’s matter, that it is mainly in Germany’s interest. Whereas the interests of the Southern European states should concentrate on the Mediterranean region because of geographic reasons. […] I am really not tired of campaigning for the extension of the Western European peace model to Eastern Europe, in other words to countries and people who are beyond the border’s of France. But peace and security in the Mediterranean region move me in the same way as well as dialogue between the cultures living there.’