Speaker Johannes Rau on the laureate:

‘It remains to be seen whether the Convention will manage what is expected of it in the prize declaration. Here we read, “over fifty years after the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community, it is time to give the Community a constitution and thereby the internal form enabling it to exercise a leading role in the world as a Political Union.” […] Giscard d’Estaing is one of the few politicians in Europe who were able to gain experience in almost all European institutions, in the European Council, in the Committee of the Regions an in the European Parliament. When it was time to find a chairman for the difficult and demanding task of presiding over the European Convention it was no surprise that many proposed the name Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.’