‘Europe is more than a common market, more than a tax union, although these things are of great importance. Only the concept of Europe opens up the intellectual and political horizon that we need to escape the rigidity of a purely economic way of thinking that will slowly but surely lead to our demise. We will be able to maintain the European Community, to expand it, when we rekindle the political concept of Europe, the thought of the political unification of Europe. […] I am convinced that we can achieve standardized living conditions in Europe only when we have come together as a European Union in every sense of the word.’