The European Jewish Union congratulates the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, for the rightful recognition of the European Union by the Nobel Committee in awarding it the Nobel Peace Prize. 

 

The European Council, The European Commission and the European Parliament are institutions which form and symbolise the will of the European people to live in peace with each other, travel and trade across Europe without restrictions. 

 

These institutions prevent on a daily basis the horrors of the past. For us, the Jewish people of Europe, the contrast with the past is the greatest. Our parents and our elderly still remember the Shoah, when one European country , hypnotised by its leader and consumed with hate and ambition, set Europe on fire and brought death upon 6 million European citizens because of their beliefs. 

 

The European Jewish Union is one of the European civil institutions designed to strengthen the feeling of European unity amongst the Jewish people still isolated by local and national boundaries. A unified Europe is the only guarantee for maintaining a peaceful society on our continent. 

 

Europe should not rest on its achievements; the European Union remains a work in progress.

Europe must strengthen its political institutions and assume its role in the international scene. All of this cannot happen without recognising the Judeo-Christian heritage and the fundamental human rights the past carries. Europe must eradicate anti-Semitism which lead to World War II and finally initiated the necessity of the European Union. 

 

Europe had the will and the strength to unite, now, it must fight openly the demons of its past.