Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends and colleagues, dear Governors,
dear Madame Mayor, dear Director General!
First of all, I may warmly congratulate my fellow laureate. It is a pleasure and an honour for me to receive this prize together with you today.
I know that words of thanks should be shor-ter than words of praise, and I will therefore try hard to be brief. But let me give you two rea-sons for my gratitude. The first reason is very simple. When a person from Vienna receives a Tyrolean award, this makes me particular-ly proud because it does not happen every day. It is not quite as difficult as receiving an English award when you are Scottish, but it is somewhat similar.
This led some journalists to ask how I felt about it. Well, I am very grateful and extre-mely pleased about the very personal reasons that you, dear Herwig, have mentioned.
But there is of course also a factual reason, and that is much more important. Yes, I am pleased to receive an award for the European work we are doing together with the two communal unions in Austria, the Austrian Union of Local Authorities and the Union of Austrian Cities, but also with the regional po-liticians in our country. Considering how small our country is, the Austrian municipal unions play an overproportionate role in European regional politics.
This Europe is a dream that was born not just in 1957, when the Treaties of Rome were si-gned, but much earlier in a time of poverty and misery after World War II, in an effort to overcome the terror regime of the National
Socialists and to make the dream of a new, united Europe happen.
At first it was not the nation states that began to turn this dream into a reality. The now famous conference of Versailles was rightly mentioned today, when mayors from all over Europe came together to discuss for the first time this dream of a united Europe and to breathe life into it.
Yes, it was the regional politicians and mayors that started this European dream. Once more, this shows the pioneering role of the regions, towns and municipalities of Europe.
Today, we are right in the middle of this Euro-pean dream. Rifkin wrote an entire book about it. I would have preferred him to define the European dream more in its own right than in comparison with and in contrast to the Ameri-can way of life, the AmeriAmeri-can social and econo-mic model. We have good reason today to say confidently that we Europeans have developed an economic and social model that is the big-gest success story in the history of humankind.
Europe has learned of the mistakes of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century and together has found a way to make this Eu-ropean dream come true.
Basically it consists of four parts, two of which we have definitely achieved to a great extent – even if a lot remains to be done. I am re-ferring to the most unbelievable peace project ever launched on this old continent that has given rise to so many wars, exploitation, mi-sery and poverty, especially during the times of colonialism and imperialism.
Most of us have no personal recollection of World War II. I myself, not a youngster any-more, was born five years after the war ended.
If you talk to seven- or eight-formers today, it
strikes you that they know warfare only from television, that it is not part of their personal experience. This situation is debatable becau-se not so long ago, a terrible war was raging only an hour‘s flight from Vienna.
In today‘s peaceful Europe nobody should forget the Srebrenica massacre, inconceivable to us in 20th-century Europe. Even in today‘s Europe we still have quite a lot to do to imple-ment the peace project in all of Europe.
We ourselves are responsible, and we need to assume responsibility. Democracy and free-dom must be well fortified to efficiently defend themselves against the enemies of freedom and democracy. Those who have visited the graves of Srebrenica and Sarajevo will know what I am talking about. I would never advo-cate a war of aggression but it is necessary to put up a fight against the enemies of freedom, as was said during the French Revolution.
We can look back on an incredible success project also with regard to Europe‘s econo-mic development. There have been setbacks, no doubt. And undoubtedly, we have failed to take ourselves seriously in many respects.
What happened to the implementation of the decisions of Lisbon in Europe, especially in economic terms, in energy policy, science and research?
We have not taken ourselves seriously in more ways than one as regards Keynes‘ economic theory because we did not make use of the time we had to prepare ourselves for phases of recession. But this does not mean that the underlying idea is wrong. Europe‘s success story need not be diminished but we still have to conclude that a lot could have worked out better.
We have a number of tasks to tackle: in an ever increasing and differentiated globalisa-tion we will be competitive only if we are a strong Europe. It will not only be necessary to adequately meet the currency criteria but beyond that to proceed towards harmonized tax systems within the European Union. In ad-dition, there are many other fundamental and important elements that are prerequesities for economic strength and competitiveness.
But dear friends, an even bigger task we are facing is an ethical task that will greatly con-tribute to the acceptance of the European success model among the general population.
The task is to resolve the social issue. We will only be able to convince people of the Euro-pean model if we come to terms with the 17 million unemployed in our affluent Europe.
By incredible exertion and effort, the member states have managed to introduce a common currency. A next effort, another big step will be necessary to adequately enforce the issues of employment and social policies. You can‘t help the hopeless by giving them an abstract picture of Europe, what they need is a realistic hope for a better life.
Alongside solidarity, the last essential point in my view is democracy and subsidiarity. Why do I as a passionate European fight for a Eu-rope of the regions? Because it is best suited to ensure acceptance of this great European project, to make it tangible. This will ultimate-ly cause people to realultimate-ly participate in Europe, to make a personal contribution.
Today Europe is present in the smallest muni-cipal office. The bulk of decisions, no matter whether in a small village or in big Vienna, is influenced or even determined by European decisions. That is why it is not just our right
but also our duty to contribute to European policies. People will learn to understand Euro-pe much better if we get this message across to them. It is not acceptable that people today experience in so many ways that subsidiarity is one of the basic principles of the European Union, just like competition or freedom, while their daily work is a hundred percent competi-tion and zero percent subsidiarity.
Subsidiarity loses every conflict fought bet-ween subsidiarity and competition, whether before the European Court of Justice or the Commission. I think this is mostly what makes people so displeased. This isn‘t the whole Europe we have in mind but only part of it.
This isn‘t the whole dream we want. If you are a passionate European today, you will stri-ve to consolidate democracy, to uphold regi-onal policy in Europe and social cohesion in our society, in the same way that we support economic prosperity and stability. Peace must continue to play a decisive role in the Euro-pean success story.
Let me now give you some of the reasons why I am so passionately committed to European regional policy. As regional politicians, we are much more often confronted with the worries and concerns of people, also for their children and grandchildren. I believe it is one of our tasks to make this clear. The task isn‘t hope-less, we have achieved a lot in the debates, to mention only the local transport directive and public services of general interest but also the inclusion of the significance of the regions and municipalities in the Constitution.
This is the next big debate we have to lead.
We must achieve approval of the draft Euro-pean Constitution because it will strengthen those who want the European dream to come true on a large scale. It strengthens the
regi-ons, towns and municipalities. That is why I consider it immensely important today that the Charter of Local Self-Government, as re-tained in the resolution of Innsbruck, should be included in the acquis communautaire of the European Union.
The last step must be adoption of the Con-stitution to give us a sound legal basis for our work.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I again thank you warmly and assure you of my heartfelt gratitude. I am aware that it is not a matter of course for me to be here, so I appreciate this distinction all the more. It will make my visits to Innsbruck even more frequent and enjoyable.