European Ceremony of Honour for Dr. Helmut KOHL,Former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of GermanyandHonorary Citizen of Europe (1930 - 2017) in the EP in Strasbourg. Opening speech by Donald TUSK, President of the European Council

Strasbourg

ceremony

TUSK, Donald (PL)

European ceremony of honour for Helmut KOHL - ceremony (T)

European ceremony of honour for Helmut KOHL (T)

European Ceremony of Honour for Helmut KOHL: Opening speech by Donald TUSK, President of the European Council (11:41 - 11:47)

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, Esteemed members of the family, ladies and gentlemen, guests and friends, As a European, a Pole and someone from Gdańsk in equal measure, I feel particularly wellplaced to say a few words of farewell to Helmut Kohl, honorary citizen of Europe and honorary citizen of Gdańsk. It is no coincidence that my home town, the town in which the Solidarity movement had its roots, decided to bestow that title on the late Chancellor Kohl.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, Few in Europe understood as well as Helmut Kohl just how important the uprisings for freedom in Central and Eastern Europe were for the idea of a united Germany, and thus for almost all of Europe. He often said that the first to chip away at the Berlin Wall were the Gdańsk shipbuilders in 1980. And that is one of the reasons why he fought as hard for countries of the former Soviet bloc to join the European Union as he did for German reunification.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, It is historically symbolic that when news of the fall of the Berlin Wall reached Kohl, he was in Warsaw on an official visit to the first non-communist prime minister. And it was Warsaw which was the first to speak out with encouragement and support for the idea of German reunification. Warsaw, the town which had suffered most at the hands of the Germans during the war.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, Helmut Kohl's contribution to the process of building mutual understanding was momentous. It is thanks to him, as well as others, that words such as 'trust' and 'reconciliation' became meaningful once more in Franco-German and German-Polish relations. I can still recall two extremely powerful images: President Mitterrand and Chancellor Kohl holding hands in Verdun, and Prime Minister Mazowiecki and Chancellor Kohl embracing in Krzyżowa two days after the fall of the Wall. Those gestures, and the decisions behind them, laid the cornerstone for modern Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, Helmut Kohl put into political practice the words of Thomas Mann: 'I want a European Germany, not a German Europe'. But his vision stretched far beyond German borders and interests. With extraordinary perseverance he sought to define a common Europe; he sought for what binds it together, without harbouring any illusions that it would be simple to wipe away what divides us. A united Europe has become a reality because it was blessed with partners who had such granddesigns &ndash; thegiants of European politics: Lech Wałęsa, Fran&ccedil;ois Mitterrand, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Vaclav Havel and, at a slightly different level, Pope John Paul the Second.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, Today, the successors to those great heroes of positive European history must, gathering around his coffin, examine their consciences. In Berlin and Warsaw, Paris and Budapest, the question about the future of a united Europe must be given a resounding answer: yes. Yes to the Union, yes to freedom, yes to human rights.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, At the end of the Reconciliation Mass in Krzyżowa, Chancellor Kohl said: 'Let us step from the altar towards a good, peaceful future blessed by God, for our peoples, for the people of Poland and Germany, for all of us in Europe.' May those words remain in our memories.