That's a perfectly fair statement, but it is only through these diverse institutions that we call Europe that countries like Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have been able to realize their national interests. They couldn't have done so on their own. But those national interests remain very strong and very much present. I sense that for you, the vision of Europe is important, although you call yourself a believer in a realistic Europeanism. For such a philosophy, an important goal for a greater Europe is the enlargement of Europe.
Enlargement is a pretty dull word as a goal for Europe.
The end is to ensure that we don't start fighting each other again, because that is what a great deal of European history has consisted of. This continent is extraordinarily diverse, extraordinarily rich in culture, in invention, but also extraordinarily disorderly. We are again threatened with war in post-communist Europe. We have war in Georgia, in Chechnya, in the former Yugoslavia, that could spread to the parts of Eastern Europe closer to us. I regard enlargement of the European Union as one of the crucial ways of making sure that doesn't happen.