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Concluding Remarks by Edmond Israel, on 11 November 1999

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my privilege to make the "concluding remarks". These remarks will be short leaving sufficient time for all of you to have a convivial cocktail.

Please be assured how gratified I am by today's event, how much we all in this vast audience and beyond, applaud the decision of the Foundation's Board to select for the Vision for Europe Award 1999, Mr Wim Duisenberg President of the European Central Bank. Mr Duisenberg is a solid skipper of the Euro boat, steering a stable and responsible course on the sometimes rough seas of the fluctuating currencies.

Permit me now to spell out my own Vision for the Europe of tomorrow.

Europe has to follow a future oriented course in the fields of Politics, Economy, Finance and, last but certainly not least, the defence of the human rights. In the pursuit of this goal the political leaders in Europe have to explain clearly to the peoples of Europe of all age groups, the strategy they devise for the 21st century. They are called upon to communicate in their message realism and a great measure of enthusiasm for the Europe of tomorrow, the new Europe. It should be prosperous and therefore devote a lot of efforts to sectors which will leave a distinct imprint on the 21st century such as Science and Technology in a broader sense and, more specifically, information technology, telecommunications, biotechnics, medical research and genetics.

Let us never forget that nothing is permanent but change.

"...nothing is permanent but change."

The new Europe will have to embark on the road of progress, on the road of a knowledge-based society, the road leading to peace. To this end priority must be given to Education, promoting the talents and stimulating the creativity of the young. This, in my view is the best way to fight successfully unemployment.

We should never be afraid of Science and its technological by-products. On the contrary, we should advocate and promote as well as participate actively in research for the progress of knowledge, the improvement of the quality of life. Let us never forget that thanks to the creativity of great Europeans, Science has made stupendous and fast strides in the last half of the 20th century. This, is the real fundamental revolution in our time.

We must cut off past thinking and be aware that we experience universally in our time a paradigm shift, a transition to new thinking, the perception of a new image of reality.

"we experience universally in our time a paradigm shift, a transition to new thinking"

We Europeans, like all the peoples on our planet, must reject resolutely the narrow minded nationalistic and xenophobic thinking, which in the 20th century has caused so much horror and distress. On the contrary we have to build Europe on the solid bedrock of Hellenistic thinking and Christian-Jewish ethics, values which are not time related, values which are eternal.

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you for your attention.

 
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