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European Union: Its purpose and significance

European Union: Its purpose and significance

In the 1980s West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl worked to create a united Europe that would be both economically and politically integrated.
Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail © European Communities, 1996; SPC 5 James Cavalier/U.S. Department of Defense; Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Transcript

NARRATOR: What exactly is the role of the European Union? It’s a repeated point of contention at the summit meetings of the European Community. The Stuttgart summit of 1983 is no different. There are discussions about the EC’s expansion, financing and significance.

JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER: "When Kohl became Chancellor in 1982 there was talk of Eurosclerosis everywhere. And he was determined to stop people talking like that about Europe."

NARRATOR: The British Prime Minister is sceptical about a European Union.

HELMUT KOHL: "It was really important that we became protagonists for Europe. It was clear that a single Europe would only work if it is economically and politically united."

NARRATOR: This includes the French-German relationship. President Mitterrand meets Helmut Kohl on the battlefields of the First World War.

KOHL: "My father was a soldier in World War I and saw active duty in Verdun for three quarters of a year. And right into his old age, he would work through trauma in his dreams about storming some place as company commander and platoon leader in Verdun."

NARRATOR: François Mitterand fought here in the second World War.

FRANCOIS MITTERRAND: "I found my youth again at the battlefield of Verdun where I was seriously wounded on hill 304 in June 1940."

NARRATOR: The reaction is spontaneous and heart-felt.

MITTERRAND: "We hadn’t arranged anything in advance. But when we stood in front of the catafalque that symbolizes the fallen soldiers on both sides, I instinctively turned to Helmut Kohl and offered him my hand. His hand was already there. And so we sealed the French-German reconciliation in front of the whole world."

NARRATOR: Even in his younger years, Helmut Kohl was already determined to break down European borders. His brother had been killed in action during the second World War, and his war experiences shaped his ideas.

CLAUDIA ROTH: "This is really biographical. His aim, to see a united Europe as a peace project."

NARRATOR: Many of the major decisions to push the European Union forward are made in the 1980s. The rights of the European Parliament are cemented. Significantly, German unification and the European Union are intertwined.

ROLAND DUMAS: "We agreed with Helmut Kohl that Germany should not leave Europe, that it should be a win for everyone. The unification of Germany would take place within the framework of a united Europe."

NARRATOR: The unification of Germany is part of a deeper, European unification.
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