BAUDOUIN I, King of the Belgians, addresses MEPs at a formal sitting at the EP in Strasbourg.

Strasbourg

speech

formal sitting

EU - Belgium (T)

PLUMB, Henry (EPP, UK, The Lord)

BAUDOUIN Ist (BE)

FABIOLA (BE, QUEEN)

Address by BAUDOUIN I, King of the Belgians: extracts

Exterior shots of the "Palais de l'Europe", Strasbourg

Arrival of King BAUDOUIN and Queen FABIOLA of Belgium, in the hemicycle (2 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Lord Henry PLUMB, EP President, "Your Majesty, permit me to extend to yourself and to Her Majesty the Queen, on behalf of all my colleagues, avery respect ful and a very warm welcome" (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (French) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "Mr President, I first want to thank you for your cordial reception and for your kind words. Mr President, Members of Parliament, in the history of the European Community, which is being constructed every day, a decisive stage was marked, on 25 March 1957, by the Treaty of Rome." (2 shots)

SOUNDBITE (French) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "The Single European Act should be understood to be an intermediate stage which is to lead to a genuine European union." (2 shots)

SOUNDBITE (Dutch) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "I should like to dwell on this subject by mentioning four fields in which the influence you exercise may be considerable. First, I am thinking of the faster tempo of scientific discoveries and their technical applications, with their impact on our societies."

SOUNDBITE (Dutch) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "In this respect, two areas appear to me to deserve your special attention. To begin with, there are all the information and communication techniques &mdash; from computer to audio-visual with their multiple ramifications. Already, they have started to upset economic and military strategies, methods of public and private management, and educational systems as well as everyday life. The other area I have in mind is the sciences of life, genetics, and everything that concerns human procreation." (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (Dutch) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "Owing to many of their features, these various developments raise serious questions of an ethical nature."

SOUNDBITE (Dutch) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "A second development, which does not escape your notice, is likewise due to the progress of sciences and techniques. That very progress allows and involves more and more savings of the time and physical energy until recently required achieving economic results." (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (Dutch) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "We are moving towards a time when, in a person's career, professional work will certainly require an increasing amount of knowledge that will have to be repeatedly refreshed. But meanwhile, the duration of paid work, in each human life, will constantly shorten. This will necessarily remodel teaching programmes on every level, but will also call for a different division of the available volume of labour, by changing the terms of the unemployment problem. When caused by a transitory economic crisis, unemployment is already an unbearable ordeal for its victims. But if it persists in a society that is beginning to grow again, if it clearly results from an inadequate distribution of the mass of labour necessary in prosperous times, any unemployment, unless marginal, becomes a social scourge and a scandal." (11 shots)

<p>SOUNDBITE (French) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "The third development which cannot avoid the exercise of your influence is demographic change. It is well known that, should the total population movement recorded in our sub-continent during the last twenty years continue unchanged, the children born in Western Europe today will, at retirement age, find a strange social environment. (Applause from the centre and the right) The size of population will have decreased considerably. The elderly will be twice as numerous as younger people aged under twenty." (5 shots)</p>

SOUNDBITE (French) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "It is by privileging young people and by expecting much of them, morally and spiritually, that Europe will keep the course of life. The transmission of that life will always doubtless, in our countries, remain the preserve of young couples, in which they will behave most freely. If, however, it is intended to allow young parents to bring up children, they must be assured of the necessary resources and priority must be granted to school education and to introduction of young people into the working population. Those puplic investments will always be essential." (Applause) (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (French) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "Lastly, another field which should provide an opportunity for you to use your influence is the opening of all our countries to young people. Help them to multiply exchanges beyond their national frontiers. Let them study in other countries..." (Applause) (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (French) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Breughel, and Erasmus were able, in their days, to go about freely everywhere in Europe, ensure that a knowledge of the different languages and cultures, combined with the educational experiences of young people who travel, should bring about another way of life! (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (Dutch) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "May I conclude by celebrating your capacity for union. For the first time in the world's history, a large territorial aggregate is being formed through the combined strength of the suffrages of the national parliaments and Community institutions." (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (Dutch) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "We have doubtless become united out of concern for increasing prosperity, so as to ensure greater welfare and share it fairly inside our frontiers and with the Third World. But, more fundamentally, we place our most precious civilization values in common, and we know that we shall be a real centre of attraction if a high quality of life is apparent in our collective behaviour. Every time that we succeed in this, it will be both a signal and a peaceful challenge to other countries." (2 shots)

SOUNDBITE (French) King BAUDOUIN of Belgium: "The Queen and I thank you for your warm welcome and offer our best wishes to your Assembly and to all the families and regions from which you have come and which you present. May God protect and bless our Europe!" (Applauses) (3 shots)