Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am delighted to finally be able to welcome you all live and in person, after more than a year's delay, to the Coronation Hall of our City Hall and welcome you to the award ceremony of the International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen 2020 to Klaus Iohannis.
It is a great pleasure to welcome the 2020/21 Charlemagne Prize laureate, H. E. Klaus Iohannis, President of Romania.
We are very honored that the President of the European Council, H.E. Charles Michel, is with us in Aachen and will give the ceremonial address in honor of our award winner.
We welcome the Slovakian President, H. E. Zuzana Čaputová and the President of the German Bundestag and former winner of the 2012 prize, Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble.
A warm welcome goes to the former laureate Dr. Dalia Grybauskaitė and the former laureates Count Hermann Van Rompuy and Martin Schulz.
We welcome the Vice-President of the European Commission, Ms. Věra Jourová, as well as the representatives of the Dipl. Corps.
We welcome the President of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, Mr. Karl-Heinz Lambertz, as well as the ladies and gentlemen of the federal and state parliaments.
We are delighted to welcome the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection, Ms. Christine Lambrecht, and the Minister of State for International Cultural Policy, Ms. Michelle Müntefering.
We also warmly welcome the representatives of the churches and religious communities present today.
The Charlemagne Prize is intended "not only to draw attention to the unresolved problem of European unification, but also to try to point out ways of finding a practical solution to this pressing issue". This is how the founders described it in their 1949 proclamation. At the time, they probably could not have imagined that it would take over forty years to reach an agreement in the form of the Maastricht Treaty. But if they could see Europe today, the founding fathers (yes, they were all men back then) would certainly feel vindicated in their goals. Because today we live in a more peaceful, a stronger, a fairer Europe.
But our Europe today does not just have a single currency or a common economic policy. No. The people on our continent live this Europe. We study and work across seemingly insurmountable borders as a matter of course. We learn from and with each other, exchange ideas at all levels, enrich each other every day - and are so much more than the sum of our individual parts. We can be proud of that. We must not deprive ourselves of these strengths.
We will need it when we look at the challenges we are facing - and, above all, the challenges that lie ahead. We form a community of solidarity that has no alternative. Or as one of the two winners of the Charlemagne Prize in 1988 put it: "Europe is our future. Europe is our destiny." Helmut Kohl did not mean a fate that we are helplessly at the mercy of, but one that we can take into our own hands, that we can shape - must shape.
How important it is - and will be - to find common answers to the most pressing questions is something we are all experiencing very clearly in many different places.
The pandemic we are still in is not interested in borders. No country in the world will defeat it alone. For the first time in human history, we really are all in the same boat.
But while we will continue to be able to live with this pandemic - and will have to live with it permanently - the threat of climate change is of existential importance to humanity. We may be able to slow it down with the greatest of efforts, but there will be no vaccine against this change, it cannot simply be cured. Our world as it is today will not be the same tomorrow. Unfortunately, this climate crisis has not yet led to us finally realizing that we can only do it together. Not even in Europe.
We in Europe, with the strengths I have just mentioned, would have had a great opportunity to serve as a role model, a strong model for the future that could be transferred to the whole world. We have missed this opportunity so far. And even though we are making a new attempt with the European Green (New) Deal, the question now is whether the world we live in will even give us another chance. Even without the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, our planet is sending ever clearer warning signals that climate change is only just beginning to turn against its perpetrator: mankind.
For decades, we have lived generously on the promise of endless growth and without any consideration for this planet - and now we are paying the price.
Storms, droughts and floods are increasing at an ever faster pace. Worldwide and - like the pandemic - without knowing any limits, nature is making us drastically aware of how fragile our prosperity is. Our homes, streets and factories, our schools, museums and universities. None of it is safe. And our whole way of life is at stake.
The amount of livable space in the world is already shrinking every day, and the number of "climate refugees" - people who have to leave their homes because they simply can no longer live there - will continue to rise. Perhaps people from our latitudes will also be among them in the future. So far, we have not even been able to finally agree on the admission of political, economic and poverty refugees. That is an indictment of Europe!
But what do we do after each of these disasters? We are affected, we donate, we admire and invoke local solidarity and perhaps live a little more consciously for a while. But at the earliest when the next "big issue" dominates the headlines - and at the latest after we have dealt with the consequences - we prefer to quickly forget that none of these actions change anything about the causes of the disasters. We prefer to carry on as before.
Yet the threat of natural disasters right on our doorstep should have made it clear to us long ago that the time for excuses is over - and that we can no longer "carry on as before"! Otherwise, mankind will become a marginal note in the history of the earth - and we will only be able to use up the time available to us on our planet.
In the end, nature will prevail. The earth does not need man. But man is dependent on the earth!
When I look around here - and I don't want to offend anyone - many of us would probably not live to see the end, even under the bleakest of forecasts.
Even though the European Court of Human Rights last week allowed a lawsuit by six children against the governments of 33 European countries to go ahead, demanding effective action against climate change. Even if there were the first hunger strikes by young people who finally want to be heard before the German parliamentary elections and even if nobody can deny that climate protection will become more expensive the longer we wait ... We could care less about all that! After all, we have had and continue to have a good, fulfilling life, so let future generations take care of it ...
But looking around here, I'm glad to know that none of you think that way. That nobody cares that a child born today will experience on average twice as many forest fires, three times as many floods and seven times as many heatwaves as a person born in 1960 under the current climate strategy. We are aware of our part in the current situation and even more aware of our great responsibility towards our children and grandchildren to leave them a sustainable world.
The next generations have a right to it and we have to ensure that young people have this right. Not because it will be expensive otherwise, not because we will be sued, but because it is the only right thing to do! But how can we achieve this?
The current elections and the fact that the European community of states is divided on many issues unfortunately show that even in the face of catastrophes, not everyone has changed their mindset. This is exactly what needs to happen immediately and on a much more drastic scale - in terms of economic activity, energy production and the reduction of CO2 emissions.
Of course, we have to convince people, take them with us, encourage them to see a new, different life as an opportunity. At home, in the municipalities, in the individual countries, but also in the European Community as a whole.
But we can no longer wait for everyone! We must act now, we must act boldly!
The European Union as we know it today would never have come into being if its founders had just waited until everyone was in agreement. They had a bold vision from which they would not be dissuaded. And that is exactly where we - 75 years after the Second World War - need to get back to: To act instead of always reacting!
We must not allow the bureaucratic structures of the EU or those who propagate a purely technological solution to our problems, contrary to all the facts, to dissuade us from the path ahead of us. We can no longer afford this.
Because, as I have already said, there is no alternative!
Yet we in Europe have everything we need to go down this path! We have outstanding scientists, a strong economy and good, stable living conditions.
Furthermore, during the flood disaster this summer, we were not only able to experience a level of solidarity that we hardly thought possible, but our joint efforts here in the region also proved that Europe can indeed act beyond the borders of individual countries.
We should focus on these, our strengths - and trust in them!
Precisely because we can no longer wait until all individual states are on the same page on every issue in view of the huge challenges facing us - as the disputes surrounding Brexit or the differences with some states in Eastern Europe have shown - we must be all the more vigilant. Because Europe, our destiny, is still a fragile entity that needs to be protected.
We are therefore particularly pleased to have an ally in today's award winner, Klaus Iohannis, who shares the idea of a strong Europe together, lives our values and has aligned his political work with them. "He is an important mediator and bridge builder between Western and Eastern European societies", as it says in the citation for the award.
Since the beginning of his political career, Klaus Iohannis has been a courageous doer who takes people along with him by trusting them and having confidence in them. These are qualities that we should all take as an example and that we urgently need for the efforts of the future.
The European idea has survived all manner of crises, setbacks and conflicts over the past 75 years. Now our great vision, which has been filled with more and more life over the decades, is once again being put to the test - and this time everything is at stake.
Let us remember once again (in conclusion) the words of the founders of the Charlemagne Prize, who set themselves the task of "pointing out ways of finding practical solutions to this urgent question ..." and then let us take our fate into our own hands, let us build bridges and, together with the youth of Europe, dare to make a genuine, courageous, uncompromising new start! Away from a divided, bureaucratic, hesitant Europe - towards a Europe of doers!
Thank you very much!
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Recording of the award ceremony (WDR Mediathek)
18.11.2022