Salutes “communities mobilised for peace”

In the context of the war in Ukraine, President Marcelo has used Europe Day today to re-emphasise the need for mutual support among European democracies “under penalty of succumbing to the anathemas born inside or to the brute force that surrounds them from outside.”

In a statement released by his office, the president called for the European Union to be valued as “the permanent meeting of multiple wills, capable of resolving interests not always aligned in a more prosperous, peaceful and fairer common interest.

“Because it is in European integration that the destiny of the European peoples finds stability. Let us know how to preserve their inalienable democratic values, without ever bowing to those who, inside and outside our Union, try to challenge them.” 

Says Lusa, “the president salutes all the countries in Europe that, over the decades, have managed to rise from the rubble of war and whose communities have mobilised “for peace, freedom, social justice, and to welcome those who wanted to join in.”

Marcelo affirms he is looking at the future of the EU “with a realistic optimism“, taking the view that its member states will reveal “once again the wisdom to overcome the new critical phase, with cohesion intact, democracies reinvigorated, and popular support revitalised.

“That is why today, more than ever, the Europe we need makes all those who believe in it indispensable to its future.” 

Europe Day, which is celebrated annually on 9 May, was officially declared at the 1985 European Council (June 28 and 29)in Milan, but was first celebrated in 1968.

Source: Lusa