Robert Schuman on Hungary and Europe
Robert Schuman on Hungary and Europe

Summary/Abstract: Robert Schuman (1886–1963), French statesman and ‘founding father’ of European integration, once declared: Nous devons faire l’Europe non seulement dans l’intérêt des pays libres, mais aussi pour pouvoir y accueillir les peuples de l’Est qui, délivrés des sujétions qu’elles ont subies jusqu’à présent, nous demanderont leur adhésion et notre appui moral. We must make Europe not only in the interest of the free countries, but also to be able to welcome the peoples of the East who, freed from the subjection that they have suffered until now, will ask to join us and request our moral support. (my translation) During the enlargement of the European Union (EU) to include the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which I helped to plan in the European Commission in Brussels, I often quoted this far-sighted remark of Schuman. Before 1989 he was practically the only politician in the West to predict that one day we would welcome into the EU the Europeans who were separated from us by the Iron Curtain.

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