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The goal of the EU is to form a region of freedom, security and justice. Freedom in this connection cannot be just the freedom of the strong, but it must be combined with fraternity and equality.

The EU is not a country and it's not going to become a country, in my view, now or ever in the future. It is a group of countries working together.

Europe must be understood and controlled by its citizens.

In Europe it is particularly important that we build good relations to everyone who holds political responsibility because Europe can only be build together.

It's political glue inside Europe to keep it together - the euro is the best thing going for it since the creation of the common market.

People feel that the EU is heading in a direction that they never signed up to. They resent the interference in our national life by what they see as unnecessary rules and regulation. And they wonder what the point of it all is. Put simply, many ask 'why can't we just have what we voted to join - a common market?'

Whoever speaks of Europe is wrong: it is a geographical expression.

What we should be doing in the EU as a whole is more economic integration in the single market, rather than less.

I said, yet again, for Germany, Europe is not only indispensable, it is part and parcel of our identity. We've always said German unity, European unity and integration, that's two parts of one and the same coin. But we want, obviously, to boost our competitiveness.

European citizens expect that there will be also a fair system inside the European Union and in the euro, and that's why we have to have quite hard discipline.