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I don't want to be an American.

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I don't want to be an American.

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I don't want to be an American.

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I've been waiting for a long time.

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I think Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland are the best.

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Europe is the future. If people love it, that's all.

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I don't say yes, I'm European. In my life, there's nothing that makes me say that.

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There are no more wars in Europe. Everyone in Europe is fed.

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Apart from that, I regard myself as English.

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And I look to the parliament down there to make my laws.

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The end of the century. They say it was a real Europe.

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All the fashion and European customs that are bringing to our country

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what they are doing is lowering the quality of life that we have.

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It's not possible to control something from Brussels

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by a bunch of imbecilic people who are just raising high wages.

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We are Europeans because it's much easier to cross borders, to travel.

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The currency is common, so it's super easy.

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We'll say, for example, our Barcelona.

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When Spain says, our Prague.

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And when Sweden says, our Vienna.

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I think that would mean that we are Europeans.

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It's truly a mission impossible because if you think of it,

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this is actually a political body that deals with everything

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from counting codfish in the Baltic Sea

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to trying to intervene to create peace in the Middle East.

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So what we have done from the very beginning and through these last couple of years,

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a little bit more than two years,

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we have tried to start to educate people to listen better,

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to put ears on the European Union, to actually explain better.

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Isn't that effectively using taxpayers' money

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to fund what many people see as pure propaganda for the EU?

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My starting point is the following.

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Citizens have a right to know.

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Important decisions are taken by the European institutions,

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by the Council, by the Commission, etc., the European Parliament.

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This happens every week. Ministers meet every week.

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The Commission proposes things that will affect your life

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and everybody else's life in Europe.

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I think we counted and we came to 20 member states

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where this is part of the curriculum.

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But I think that it has to be part of the curriculum in every member state.

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And you don't see that as propaganda?

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No, definitely not.

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What's the difference?

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Well, the difference is that you try to influence somebody

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to believe in a very specific idea or something.

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This is like teaching people about how the United Nations works.

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I know there have been many initiatives to listen,

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to involve the public in the debate.

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A certain amount of cynicism, though.

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OK, you're going to listen.

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But then when you've heard what we have to say,

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what are you going to do with it?

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Well, I can give you a very concrete example.

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If you remember rightly, this Commission was very much criticised

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for only having a business agenda,

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that we were not broad enough in our scope

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and in the way we looked at things.

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And a lot of people said that this is all about

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making a market out of the whole European Union and nothing else.

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And then there was a very lively debate,

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and we met also in the Barroso Commission for a seminar

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where we also looked at, for example, the Eurobarometer opinion polls,

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and we really discussed the kind of debate that was taking place in Europe.

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And after that, we established something that we called a citizen's agenda.

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We've just celebrated the European Day of Languages,

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and I thought in honour of that that I should attempt,

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and apologies to all French native speakers,

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to put at least one question to you in French,

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and it's going to be about language.

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And I've actually prepared myself for it.

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I think it's important to create a more balanced language regime.

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But I also think that there is something very practical,

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and we need to have resources for the budget,

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and also to do it,

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because now there are 23 official languages in the European Union,

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and it takes a lot of resources,

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a lot of people who work as interpreters to work with languages.

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Commissioner, thank you very much indeed.

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Thank you.

81
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Thank you very much.

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Thank you very much.

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Thank you very much.

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How was that?

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It's getting more complicated by the minute.

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How was that?