Debate: This is Europe - Debate with the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis
Date: WEDNESDAY, 7 FEBRUARY 2024
Speaker: Cristian Terheş
Political group: ECR
Country: Poland
Language: EN

But since the debate is about Europe, before we talk about what Europe is, it is imperative to look back and see what Europe was, how this project started, where it is heading, and if this new direction has anything in common with the initial project.  When Ms von der Leyen held her speech in this plenary in 2019, she said that the European project is based ‘on Roman law and Greek philosophy’. She forgot one, and the most important pillar of the European project, the Judeo-Christian values, civilisation and culture. It was the Christian belief and Judeo-Christian values, based on the Bible, that gave the power and motivation to many political leaders from different European nations that killed, destroyed and decimated each other during the Second World War to meet after the war, pray together, forgive and reconcile with each other, and come up with an economical and political plan that would and did bring peace through prosperity. Because of these visionary, faithful and courageous political leaders, Western Europe was able to achieve peace and hold it for over 80 years, which was unprecedented for Europe.  I say ‘Western Europe’ because, us in Eastern Europe were under the Soviet occupation and we experienced a different kind of political and economic system, an atheistic one, in which the state and the Communist Party was God, where the state was above all and people were deprived of their basic fundamental rights.  The difference between the two political and economic systems that Europe experienced after the Second World War – the European project that we witness here, which evolved in the European Community and Union in Western Europe, and the USSR and the Soviet Marxist and communist model in Eastern Europe – is exactly the pillar that was intentionally or not forgotten by Ursula von der Leyen: the Judeo-Christian values, culture and civilisation.  The Judeo-Christian values are the source of and notions that later evolved and were mentioned in international treaties, national constitutions and laws like human dignity, equality before the law, the separation of powers in the state or inalienable fundamental human rights.  Robert Schuman, a founding father of the European Project and former President of the European Parliament, said, ‘Democracy owes its existence to Christianity [...] Christianity teaches equality of all nature of all men, children of the same God, redeemed by the same Christ, without distinction of race, colour, class or profession [...] Democracy will be Christian or it won’t exist. An unchristian democracy is a caricature which sinks into tyranny or anarchy.’  It was exactly these Judeo-Christian values that brought peace, prosperity, respect among nations in Western Europe, and the lack of them that brought tyranny, abuse and poverty in the USSR, in Eastern Europe. It was this faith in God that my fellow Romanians held strong under communism and motivated them to dream and fight for freedom.  It is therefore incomprehensible for many fellow Romanians why in the past 40 years exactly these personal and national freedoms have been violated by the European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen. The European project was built on a free market principle which was brought, which has brought prosperity in Western Europe. In the past four years, under the current European Commission, we see that free market principles are becoming an overregulated one, which is making the European businesses and products less likely to be competitive on the global market.  The European project was built on the concept that fundamental human rights are inalienable, and the governments must not force or impose medical products into citizens bodies, but allowed them to decide based on their free and informed consent. We saw what happened during the pandemic, when people were forced to be vaccinated with medical products that we find out now, later on, have many adverse effects.  Europe has long been a reference of democracy and human rights, championing principles of liberty, equality and the rule of law. An erosion of these fundamental rights, even by EU entities, represents a betrayal of our shared values and must be met with firm opposition. The Romanian nation, which I most proudly represent, was able to overcome any challenges during history and become today one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. We did it through faith and fight for freedom.