A “Triple Play” for Europe
Viviane Reding Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media Digital Lifestyle Day 2006 - "The first reform that we Europeans need to catch-up is a reform of our mentality. Too often I see pessimism and fear dominate political talks in Europe. Pessimism about the possibility of keeping our wealth. Fear of globalisation. Fear even of our neighbours. In France, the fear of the famous “Polish plumber” has even led to a rejection of the new European Constitutional Treaty, which would have made Europe stronger with regard to the challenges of globalisation – and this even though there are not more than 120 plumbers of Polish nationality in the whole of France. Have we forgotten what European integration is all about? Have we forgotten all the jobs created by opening up Central and Eastern European markets for products from Western European countries? And have we really already forgotten that just two decades ago, we would have wholeheartedly welcomed every Eastern European coming westward with expertise or a tool box instead of with a machine gun? The disclosure of the archives of the Warsaw Pact in these days should remind us how much confrontation was a reality in Europe when it was still divided by the Cold War, and how grateful we therefore should be for today’s peaceful unification of the European family."
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