(Brussels) “Today, we, as citizens of the European Union, live in a space of freedom, democracy and rights. We can decide how to live, we can freely express ourselves, we have protected rights. We Germans know very well – the president of Germany, Schäuble, states, while speaking at the EU Parliament – “that we also owe this” to the events of ’89 and that “now we have a great space of freedom in which we share the same values. The EU’s path cannot be stopped”. “Europe – he adds – is a place in which it’s worth living, attractive, often envied” by those who live in other parts of the world. But Schäuble also mentions the risks that the integration process is exposed to, and states that “every democratic process is laborious”, because it tries to reconcile different positions. “Freedom – he then explains – is not an end in itself”, “it should not be taken for granted” and “it must lead to equality and fraternity”. Quoting Jacques Delors, then, the speaker warns “from the new nationalism and from the individualism” that are affecting Europe. Then, he recalls the challenges that are awaiting Europe: Brexit, war at the Eastern borders, an “unstable international order”, “migration, climate change, security, hunger in such a large part” of the planet. “These are challenges that require a global response that Europe can contribute to, on condition the member states cooperate with each other”. He concludes: “we must overcome our fears and mediocrity. Big changes, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, are possible if we fight” “bravely” together to get them.