“English should be the language of Europe, claims Germany's president as he begs Britain not to leave the European Union”
Mail Online,
February 22, 2013
By Allan Hall (photo
unavailable)
 |
| Joachim Gauck |
English should become
the language of Europe, the German president has claimed. Joachim Gauck made his
comments in Berlin as he pleaded with Britain not to leave the European Union.
In remarks unlikely to please the
French, Mr Gauck said English had become the ‘lingua franca’ of the continent.
‘One of the main problems we have in building a more integrated European
community is the inadequate communication within Europe,’ he said. It is true to
say that young people are growing up with English as the lingua franca.
‘However, I feel that we should not simply let things take their course when it
comes to linguistic integration.
‘More Europe means multilingualism. I am
convinced that feeling at home in one’s native language and its magic and being
able to speak enough English to get by in all situations and at all ages can
exist alongside each other in Europe.’ Mr Gauck also pleaded with Britain to
stay in the EU.
Referring to David Cameron’s pledge of
an in/out referendum on the EU Gauck said in a keynote speech: 'Dear English,
Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish and new British citizens. We would like to keep
you! “We need your experiences as the country with the oldest parliamentary
democracy, we need your traditions, your soberness and your courage.”
'You helped with your deployment in
World War II to save our Europe - it is also your Europe. ‘More Europe should
not mean "without you," he said to thunderous applause at his palace in Berlin
in his first major address since taking on the job nearly a year ago.
Aware that a powerful Germany is now
seen as a bully in many European countries - dictating austerity in
cash-strapped nations - he insisted in his televised speech: “We don’t want to
browbeat others, or press our concepts on them. We stand however by our
experiences and would like to convey them,' recalling that less than a decade
earlier Germany had been the 'sick man of Europe’.”
The president, whose has a largely ceremonial and moral
leadership role, conceded that a 'structural flaw' led to an imbalance in the
European Union which was only “patched up by emergency measures, such as the
European Stability Mechanism and the fiscal compact.” He also conceded that most
of what the EU’s 500 million citizens have read or heard about the 27-member
bloc over the past few years has tended to be about the eurozone crisis. “This
is also a crisis of confidence in Europe as a political project. This is not
just a struggle for our currency; we are struggling with an internal quandary
too.”
The president then went on to remind his
audience, which was largely made up of people under the age of 30, of the
achievements of the EU since it began as a trading block in the post-war years -
including the fact that the bloc 'has been at peace ever since.'
After all, he said, 'it was from our
country that the attempts to destroy everything European, all universal values
were unleashed.
Despite everything that happened, the
Allies granted our country support and solidarity straight after the war,' he
said. 'We were invited, received and welcomed.' The president also stressed that
despite its economic might, Berlin had no aspirations of imposing 'a German
diktat.'
Gauck, an activist pastor from former
communist East Germany, defined what Germany owed to Europe and the western
Allies in rebuilding after the devastation of WWII. 'We were spared at the time
what could have easily followed after our hubris, an existence as an outcast
stranger outside of the community of nations.'
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