1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000
A Europe of freedom and solidarity. A Europe whole and free.

2
00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:13,000
And it is important to remind ourselves that this Europe would not have been possible

3
00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,000
without the events of 20 years ago that we commemorate today.

4
00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:21,000
The lifting of the Iron Curtain and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

5
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:27,000
It would not have been possible without the commitment and dedication of the people who made history happen.

6
00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:33,000
Those men and women on the streets who form opposition to totalitarian governments,

7
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:40,000
express their disenchantment, call for democratic change, build up pressure,

8
00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:45,000
mobilize others and spill their wish for freedom across borders.

9
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:53,000
People in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic countries, East Germany,

10
00:00:53,000 --> 00:01:01,000
Bulgaria, Romania. Those peoples, they brought down the Iron Curtain.

11
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:07,000
I deeply admire all those courageous individuals in their search for freedom.

12
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:12,000
Let me pay tribute in particular to those many thousands of Europeans who suffered

13
00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:16,000
or even paid with their lives for their ideals.

14
00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:24,000
Today, on the 9th of November 2009, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall.

15
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,000
In 1989, the light of hope started painting a bright future,

16
00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:34,000
not only for the countries in Central and Eastern Europe, but for Europe as a whole.

17
00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:39,000
Having grown up in a dictatorship myself where freedom was an unknown word,

18
00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:45,000
I am still truly moved by the events of 1989, when borders stopped being a barrier

19
00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,000
and when freedom returned.

20
00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:52,000
For me, the packing of holes in the Berlin Wall in November 1989

21
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:58,000
echoed the music of freedom that I had got used to listening to only a few years before.

22
00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:05,000
For me, in 1989, it was not just the world that collapsed,

23
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,000
but the world of the ideology of oppression.

24
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:14,000
The Iron Curtain had cut Europe into two.

25
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:20,000
Its dismantling in 1989 was the start of making Europe once again.