During the plenary session (13-14/11/2019) in the European Parliament in Brussels, Wolfgang SCHÄUBLE, President of the German Bundestag, makes a statement in the framework of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall: extracts from the statement.

Brussels

statement

plenary session

EU - Germany (T)

SCHÄUBLE, Wolfgang (DE)

anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (T)

30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall: extracts from the statement by Wolfgang SCHÄUBLE, President of the German Bundestag

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag, The Germans in the GDR and people right across Central and Eastern Europe were throwing off the Soviet mantle and control. Nations found their way back to one another. Peoples republics became republics of citizens because they were there for their citizens.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag, And so we need to remain aware of what is possible when people work together for something.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag, The courage of those who in many places in the GDR were demonstrated and took very high personal risk to exert pressure on the rigid state and party apparatus and demand reforms and freedoms. Or those who, in the pursuit of freedom, left everything behind and fled to the West. And let us not forget that the revolution was peaceful in Germany.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag, Total strangers hugged one another 28 years after the wall was built. It was a death strip. At least 140 people lost their lives along that border. We will never forget them and we will never forget the suffering of their families and all of the other victims of the decades long dictatorship in Eastern Europe.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag, We Germans know that without European unity, without a doubt, the will to see East and West come together. There would not be German unity.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCHA&#220;BLE, President of the German Bundestag, We share the same values.And we always hoped that they would prevail, and we have seen that the democracies have entered into a global competition with authoritarian systems that promise efficiency and prosperity, but without guaranteeing what is very normal for us Western citizens.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag, The freedom that came after centuries of terrible wars and the loss of humanity in Europe is a challenge for all of us. There are always consequences. It's a question of the freedom of others that makes people feel concerned.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#220;ABLE, President of the German Bundestag, (Quoting Jacques Delors)  'If the EU fails, then there is the risk of Europe's heritage being lost'. And I think that that's relevant today. And what Jacques Delors could not have guessed to imagine and certainly wouldn't have wanted is that the EU is going through a painful process of losing one of its largest members. And we see a return to war and violence at borders to the East of the European continent.

SOUNDBITE (German), Wolfgang SCH&#196;UBLE, President of the German Bundestag, We need to overcome narrow minded, selfish self-interest and fears.The fall of the wall and the 30 years since have shown that nothing has to stay the same. The mightiest of walls can fall. Change is possible. If we make it happen, it is up to us. And then Europe will be able to learn the lesson from the momentous global change of 1989 and 1990. We are free to act courageously. Thank you very much