Ellen Key Quotes

I am not a British isolationist. I don't just want a better deal for Britain. I want a better deal for Europe too.

Acknowledge that a more closely integrated Europe is no longer an unqualified American interest.

In Europe it is particularly important that we build good relations to everyone who holds political responsibility because Europe can only be build together.

To be influential in tomorrow's world, to defend our values and our development model, France needs Europe and Europe needs France.

We can't return to the 19th century, draw up our drawbridges and say, we don't have anything to do with each other, Germany will not work with the Netherlands, the UK will not work with France. That's ludicrous. We are condemned to work with each other.

The United States, of course, is determined to diversify Europe to such an extent that it becomes a meaningless entity.

I do not want Britain to turn its back on Europe or the rest of the world.

China's reform and opening-up programme and Europe's integration process have both contributed significantly to global peace, development, and prosperity. China firmly supports the integration of Europe and regards the E.U. as a strategic partner that deserves our confidence.

Isolationism is over.

I believe that nationalism is a very strong force, but there are other forces operating; there are tendencies pushing towards a larger picture, especially in Europe, I think; but I still think nationalism is real.

The nations of Europe constitute a federative league, a commonwealth of nations which, though it has no central head, is so intimate and elaborate as to subject the action, and sometimes even the internal affairs, of each to surveillance and intervention on the part of all the others.

I do not separate France from Europe.

Here we encounter two conflicting concepts with which we must come to grips in our time: the idea of national solidarity and the idea of international cooperation.

I am not, never have been, and never will be a politician. But I want to tell you the United States has always been proud of having the support of the United Kingdom, of keeping Britain in Europe. We need Britain in Europe.

The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism.

For virtually every area of public policy there is a globalist proposal, consistent with the overall objective of reducing individual nation-state autonomy, particularly that of the United States?

In Western Europe there are now only small countries—those that know it and those that don't know it yet.

Are we going to permit uncontrolled nationalism to dominate civilized Europe…?

National boundaries are blurred by advanced communications and global commerce, and by the decisions of States to yield some sovereign prerogatives to larger, common political associations.

Moscow would have to give up its its global aspirations and agree to obey rules that it had played no part in devising. European Commission President Romano Prodi expressed this formula best in 2002: Russia would share with the EU wvweything but institutions..... this meant Russia would adopt EU rules and regulations but would not be able to influence their development.

I'm a patriot, but I'm also a European. I think the two go together.

As complicated and complex and as difficult as we are, the unity of Europe is a pre-condition for a better organized world, and if the European Union would fail or decompose, or other members left, the U.S. would have a more difficult role to play in the world.

For all its shortcomings, European co-operation and integration has created an understanding of shared destiny. We no longer point guns at each other; we fight it out at a conference table. And we will continue to do so when the U.K. is no longer a member state but, I hope, still a friend.

The most important thing is that Europe has to remain united.

I'm a big believer in Europe.