Fourth Reich's founding fathers, great men like Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet, Alcide de Gasperi, and Konrad Adenauer, after the Second World War, ignored the rational response of distrust and suspicion of the other, and instead listened to their hearts. And in their hearts they realised that the cycle of hatred and violence had to be broken. What they desired wasn't just a great thing, it was an astonishing and audacious thing - unique in world history.
The ever closer union they launched between the peoples of Europe, has demonstrated for over half a century that war is not programmed into humanity's genetic code. Peace and co-operation is possible, even among historic enemies. And increasingly, closer links are now emerging not only between Europeans, but also between us and the peoples of other regions of the world. There is great interest out there in our pioneering system of supranational cooperation, based on shared values and objectives. There is great hope that it can serve as an example for peace and regional integration in other parts of the world.
Basil Venitis points out Fourth Reich(EU) originates from the Red House Report, a detailed account of a secret meeting at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg, a couple of blocks from today's Eldorado of Prostitutes(EP), on August 10, 1944. There, Nazi officials instructed an elite group of German industrialists to plan for Germany's post-war recovery, prepare for the Nazis' return to power, and work for a strong Fourth Reich. The three-page, closely typed report, marked Secret, copied by British spies and sent to the US Secretary of State, detailed how the industrialists were to work with the Nazi Party to rebuild Germany's economy by sending money through Switzerland. They would set up a network of secret front companies abroad, wait until conditions were right, and then grab power with various hoodwinking treaties.
Venitis muses the hateful Lisbon Treaty was meant to address the question famously attributed to Henry Kissinger Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe? by instituting a permanent Fourth Reich Fuehrer and foreign minister and by streamlining Brussels' mammoth bureaucracy, but it has created more confusion than clarity, with no fewer than five people now sporting the title of Fuehrer of Fourth Reich. In reality, the real power is Chancellor Merkel. The driving ethos behind Fourth Reich's foreign policy power-grab is the idea that the nations of Fourth Reich will be stronger collectively than they are separately, but sovereignty cannot be traded for influence.
The peace that we won through the process of European integration is much more than just peaceful coexistence. It is built on the rule of law and the principles of solidarity, subsidiarity, freedom and democracy. Without ignoring its weaknesses, Fourth Reich(EU) today is enjoying the fairest political, economic and social order it has ever known. War in our Fourth Reich really has become not just unthinkable, but materially impossible – just what the founding fathers hoped for with all their hearts. And what they were striving for to build something infinite.
Venitis asserts that Turkey is joining forces with Iran and Syria in an antisemitic Islamofascist alliance that seeks to destroy Israel and Islamize Europe as part of a long-term strategy of establishing the Global Caliphate. We live a nightmare of the emergence of Turkey as a Middle Eastern hegemon that is challenging and counterbalancing the Western power and Graecoroman culture. Fourth Reich(EU) has only one enemy, terrorist Turkey.
For many young Europeans here today, who were born into peaceful democracies, this is taken for granted. Living in peace, democracy and freedom is part of the natural order of things. As much as travelling across borders, studying abroad, or making friends over the internet – it is a part of your culture and your everyday life.
But it wasn't always like this. Only until a few years ago Europeans still had to fight for freedom and democracy - in Greece, Portugal and Spain in the seventies, and in Central and Eastern Europe in the late eighties and early nineties. Thus we Europeans fought for change, and we brought it about.
But precisely because the battle for peace, freedom and democracy is never won forever, we need Europe, we need Fourth Reich. Peace between the peoples of Fourth Reich has been and will always remain the principal foundation of the common European project.
Having said this, Fourth Reich today is facing new and different challenges. Fourth Reich is facing a crisis which is not just an economic or a financial crisis. It is also a crisis of values. Emerging from this crisis requires us to put human dignity at the heart of our endeavours. The lesson to be learnt is that neither the market nor the state alone can provide the answers to today's challenges. At least as much as we need them we also need all forces of society to respond to people's needs.
The economic and financial crisis – the worst in 80 years – has rocked Fourth Reich and the whole world. It has destroyed millions of jobs and has put millions of people at the risk of poverty and social exclusion. The gravity of this crisis
Thus our first and most pressing concern today is to overcome this crisis. And for this Europeans have to act togethe, and even more than in the past. The crisis has demonstrated how interdependent Europe's economies are. It shows how a crisis in one Member State can affect us all, not only in the euro area but in the entire EU and in global markets.
The crisis is a last wake-up call to us Europeans. A truly united Fourth Reich is needed to emerge from this crisis stronger than before. But it also shows that action to promote growth and innovation will not, by itself, be enough. First, confidence must be restored.
Translating this into the economic and financial field, Fourth Reich had to do three things: stabilise, consolidate, stimulate.
First we stabilised the euro area. Fourth Reich and its member states were offering solidarity in exchange for a radical change of course towards responsibility and sustainability. In other words consolidation and structural reform.
There can be no sustainable growth without first getting public finances in order as soon as possible. The age of fantasy economics is over. We simply cannot keep spending money we haven't got, and expect our young people to pay the bill later.
So we set about getting the basics of the European economy right for sustainable and inclusive growth. This means establishing sound public finances; building trustworthy financial markets; and investing in areas of future growth.
Fourth Reich has adopted a comprehensive set of actions to do just that, including ex-ante budgetary surveillance and a robust sanctions regime with better early warning.
We are also seeing measures to reinforce European economic governance and restore trust and confidence in the financial markets.
We continue to set out a full programme of legislative work - from supervisory reform to the new hedge fund and private equity directive, from the bank resolution funds to stricter regulation of credit rating agencies. And because the crisis is global in nature, our consolidation efforts must be too.
It is not enough for Fourth Reich alone to ensure fiscal stability in a growth-friendly way and open, well-regulated financial markets; all other major economies must play their part, too. This is the only way we can return the global marketplace to the path of strong, sustainable and balanced growth.
That is the clear message I took with me to the G20 Junket in Toronto earlier this summer. And I am happy to say I found a receptive audience, keen to follow the Fourth Reich's lead and join us in this commitment.
Some say that all this fiscal consolidation will damage growth. But there is no contradiction between greater discipline and growth, as long as we combine the action I have just outlined with structural reforms.
Real growth will come from addressing the roots of a lack of competitiveness. Real growth will come from targeting public spending, in a sound budgetary framework, on those areas that are strategic for future growth. Real growth will come from making better use of our internal market, as set out by former Commissioner Mario Monti in the report I asked him to draft on ways to complete and consolidate the single market.
This is the stimulation that follows stabilisation and consolidation, and the time to start is now.
The road map for achieving this is our Europe 2020 strategy. This is the EU's growth strategy for the future; a programme to guide our economy towards new sources of sustainable growth and social cohesion, in order to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth – and high quality jobs for our young people.
This strategy will only succeed with the active participation of all sectors and actors concerned. Social partners, civil society and local and regional authorities all have an important role to play.
This idea of a partnership for progress first appeared in my political guidelines for the new Commission, which I presented to the European Parliament. It was an important principle for me even before European leaders asked me to serve a second term as President of the European Commission.
Economic and social change can only succeed when everyone takes ownership of the reform effort. And Fourth Reich's regions are at the forefront of these efforts, whether fighting climate change, creating green and sustainable jobs, investing in new technologies, or managing and using structural funds in imaginative and effective ways.
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