The President of the European Movement International (EMI), Jo Leinen, welcomed today’s election of Martin Schulz as President of the European Parliament. The EMI supports Martin Schulz’s plea to defend with self-confidence the achievements of 60 years of European integration.

The EMI strongly supports the vision of President Schulz to raise the profile of the EP as the platform for democracy and informed debate. In this context, the EMI welcomes that the new President of the EP will particularly focus on strengthening citizens’ participation in order to revive enthusiasm for Europe.

The EMI also welcomes the demand of Martin Schulz to strengthen the Community Method. “We ask the Member States to realise that only the community method can lead the way out of the crisis. Strong European Institutions are the answer to various European challenges“, said Jo Leinen.

Most of all, we should not forget sending the message to the citizens, that the political vision of the European Union as a vibrant and dynamic political project has given Europe the longest period of peace and prosperity in its history.

The EMI is ready to work closely with the new EP President in order to promote European citizens participation and to renew their passion and engagement for the European idea.

“The goal of the European integration is not a Europe of governments, but a Europe of citizens“, said Jo Leinen.

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Editor’s Note: The European Movement is an international organisation open to all political, economic, social and cultural trends in civil society.

For more information, please contact the secretariat: +32 (0)2 508 30 88, email: secretariat(at)europeanmovement.eu