Summary: Concert in Honour of the 50th Anniversary of the EU - Remarks by EU Commission Vice President Kallas (28 March 2007: New York)
Remarks by Siim Kallas, Vice President of the European Commission, on the occasion of a concert celebrating Europe, United Nations General Assembly, New York
Let me first thank the President of the General Assembly for the use of this great Hall on this momentous occasion. I would also like to thank the Deputy Secretary-General for her presence here, which underlines the very close and growing EU-UN partnership. And certainly not least, we are very grateful to the NDR orchestra and Maestro Dohnányi, who extended their stay in New York to make this evening possible.
We very much look forward to your performance.
In addition, we salute the spirit of cooperation from the German EU Presidency, without which we would not be here celebrating tonight. Our joint efforts have yielded a great result.
As you'll note from your program, from the very beginning, the signing of the Rome Treaty in 1957 bound together the process of European construction with the values and principles of the UN Charter. In fact, the UN Charter has been our guiding star as we've grown from six countries to 27, and as we have become a substantial presence on the international scene, including here at UN headquarters.
The Rome Treaty set out an outward looking vision for the EU, enabling us to become one of the world's most important economic partners, and THE most important development partner around the globe today. This why we are so delighted to celebrate our golden anniversary tonight, here in the symbolic heart of multilateralism, the UN General Assembly Hall.
In celebrating our substantial achievements over the last fifty years, we also need to look to the future. This means finding new and better ways of handling our growing responsibilities towards our own citizens, and to the rest of the world, in an age of rapid globalization. Indeed, Europe must promote its values in the world, as well as its interests. If the EU's core values of sustainability, solidarity and security are to have any real meaning, then they cannot stop at our borders.
With these words, I wish you an enjoyable concert.
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