‘At this very place thirty six years ago Winston Churchill said these words when we he accepted the Charlemagne Prize, “Czechoslovakia will gain its freedom and Germany will be united again.” I am the first recipient of this prize who has the pleasure of being able to call out, “Winston Churchill, Czechoslovakia is free and Germany is united!” […] By professing today that we are a part of the so-called West, we are mainly and above all professing to a certain civilization, a certain political culture, certain intellectual values and universal principles. […] It is not a civilization, a culture or system of values which—after the collapse of the communistic system—suddenly came into favor, but a civilization, culture and system of values that we feel belong to us because we have been involved in their creation over centuries.’