Speaker Jean-Claude Juncker on the laureate:

‘Even if Wolfgang Schäuble is not driven by the concept of a “United States of Europe”, he is certainly convinced that we must overcome the limitations of the nation state by sharing our sovereignty with our neighbours, even our distant neighbours. It is not a United States of Europe, but an on-going endeavour to break the poisonous barbs of the nation state, and to consolidate what is precious in Europe's nation states, the sort of patriotism that stands up for others rather than turning on them, in such a way that a continental design emerges from it, […], that is what Wolfgang Schäuble wants.’