Statements by European politicians (old and new) and others:

“I always find the word Europe in the mouths of those who want something that they don’t dare demand for their own nation."

"... over eighteen months of haggling in London, Paris and Brussels, a deal was thrashed out. It infuriated Britain's fishermen, who would lose most of their traditional grounds to open European competition, particularly from French and Spanish trawlers. It was a second best deal on the budget... Above all it left intact the previous Common Market designed for the convenience of French farmers and Brussels-based bureaucrats, not for Britain. Vast slews of European law had to be swallowed whole, much of it objectionable to the British negotiators... the Commonwealth farmers' deal was won at the expense of a worse agreement on the budget. The truth was that the British negotiators had decided it was essential to the country's future to get in at any price."

"Are the British people, when they vote in a general election, to be able to change the policies of the government that has previously been there? It is already a fact, as the House [of Commons] knows full well, that whatever government is in power, our agricultural policy is now controlled from Brussels, our trade policy is controlled from Brussels, our industrial policy is controlled from Brussels, and if we go into the EMU (European Monetary Union) our financial policy will be... it is a democratic and not a nationalistic argument."

"Gradual failure of [European cooperation] is merely due to the regrettable fact that intransigent elements in your country again and again succeeded in sabotaging genuine cooperation... we expect... nothing but loyalty and understanding for the common destiny of Europe."

"Thou shalt not grant Hitler a posthumous victory."

"We decide on something, leave it lying around, and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don't know what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back."

"I have never understood why public opinion about European ideas should be taken into account."

"Osama bin Laden has done more for European integration than anyone since Jacques Delors."

"[Europe] has a currency, a passport, a citizenship, an anthem, a flag and people who like to burn it, but it doesn't have any of the inner organs of democracy, accountability or basic constitutional principles, and on the whole it's the guys who lose the elections (Chris Patten, Neil Kinnock) who get to run the joint.

"Although The New York Times maintains that 'US-Europe Split Casts Long Shadows', it's difficult for the US to have a split with Europe because there isn't a Europe to have a split with. There's Mr Persson and a few dozen other persons who've got together, ordered up some headed notepaper and issue press releases on this and that on behalf of 'Europe'. It's a fine place, this 'Europe', and entirely unperturbed by anything so inconvenient as Europeans. Why, there was Ireland's Bertie Ahern assuring his chums in Gothenburg that it would be a mistake to interpret his ingrate electorate's vote against the Treaty of Nice as a vote against the Treaty of Nice. Don't worry 'bout a thing, he says. 'I do not see any reason why any of this should change the timetable.'

"No, indeed. If we've learned anything this last week, it's that there's certainly a gap between America and 'Europe', as there is between America and the Land of Oz or the Planet Krypton. It's the gap between reality and fantasy."

"This policy is one of the biggest factors in the starvation of Africa, smothering Africa's agricultural industries in their cot by making it impossible for poor farmers to sell competitively in the most enticing markets. For every one euro we give to Africa, the EU takes away seven euros in thwarted trade."

"Members of the House – past and present – bear the guilt and the shame of having given away the powers by which we might otherwise have been able to help our fellow countrymen. In so doing, they gave away that which was not theirs to give away in the first place – the sovereign right of the British people to be governed by their own laws made in their own Parliament by their own people."

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars... And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron..."

"To the size of a state there is a limit, as there is to animals, plants and implements, for none of these can retain its facility if it is too large."

"We must create a Europe that does not squander its blood and strength in internecene conflict, but forms a compact unity."

"The policy of extending authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations."

"The division of Europe into a number of independent states is productive of the most beneficial consequences to the liberty of mankind."

"Democracy means being allowed to vote for whomever you please. Once we start disqualifying parties on grounds of their opinions, we are on a very dangerous road."

"This is exactly how the communists maintained themselves in power in my country. They didn't ban elections – we had elections every four years. They just banned their opponents from contesting the elections".

"Then let the people have the final say."

"Just as in Iran, or the old Soviet bloc, Europe's national parliaments are becoming decorative rather than functional: true power resides elsewhere."

"The way in which our involvement with the 'European project' has introduced an element of deliberate deceit into our politics which, in its depth and scale, has no historical parallel... is the most remarkable political sleight of hand which has ever been practised on the British people: to lead them step by step into exchanging their own country and political system for another, totally different; and to pretend at every stage that none of it is really happening."

"If you don't want to call it a European army, fine – you can call it Margaret, you can call it Mary-Ann."

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."

“Of course, Britain could survive outside the EU... We could probably get access to the single market as Norway and Switzerland do...”

"In each case, Euro-integrationists pursue a well-tried four-stage strategy. Stage One is mock-incredulity: 'No one is proposing any such thing. It just shows what loons these sceptics are that they could even imagine it.' Stage Two is bravado: 'Well all right, it's being proposed, but don't worry: we have a veto and we'll use it.' Stage Three is denial: 'Look, we may have signed this, but it doesn't really mean what the critics are claiming.' Stage Four is resignation: 'No point complaining now, old man: it's all been agreed.'"

"[The Constitution is] the sort of 'tidying-up exercise' that happened to the Sudetenland in 1938."

"One reason why the Eutopian dream has fizzled across the Continent is because the entire political class took it for granted no right-thinking person could possibly disagree with them, so they never felt they had to bother arguing the case and, now they have to, they can't remember what the arguments were. Those who subscribe to inevitablist theories of historical progress often make that mistake."

"If it's a Yes, we will say 'on we go', and if it's a No we will say 'we continue'."

"[The French and Dutch no votes are] not an end, rather an interruption."

"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing."

"The EU’s so-called "democratic deficit" – the remoteness of the unaccountable unelected governing class – is, as they say, not a bug but a feature. It was set up that way because, after the massive popularity of Nazism and Fascism, the post-war European elites decided that it was necessary to build institutions that restrain the will of the people rather than express it. In the long run, that's merely a more leisurely and scenic route back to where they came in."

"I believe neither the French nor the Dutch really rejected the constitutional treaty."

"The rhetorically deranged Prime Minister of Luxembourg continues to stagger around like a college date-rape defendant, insisting that all reasonable persons understand that “Non” really means “Oui”. The most his officials are prepared to concede is that they may have to go through the motions of respecting the will of the people by slowing down the timetable for totally ignoring them."

"Neither the constitutional text nor the ideas contained in it are dead. There's no doubt that sooner or later the EU will have a foreign minister and a diplomatic service. What is of crucial importance now is that we keep on working as we did before."

"I still believe that ratification of the constitutional treaty... is in the best interests of our country. However I am aware that the best path to ratification would be a speedy procedure in parliament."

"We will reverse the situation... you will see that the cause is not yet lost."

"The 'no' vote is a signal that maybe we don't want this political union and in the long run this may mean we cannot maintain the economic union."

"The dividing question of modern Europe is whether or not we desire a European government. It is the purpose of this book to answer, yes… real unity now means the European Government of Europe a Nation. We must now think, feel, act as Europeans."

"You don't need to read the European Constitution to know that it is good."

"Over the past 10 years, even with the British rebate, we have been making a contribution to Europe two and a half times that of France. Without the rebate, it would have been 15 times as much as France."

"There are those who want to scrap the supranational idea. They want the European Union to go back to the old purely inter-governmental way of doing things. I say those people should come to Terezin and see where that old road leads."

"The clock of history can also turn backwards."

"We have to abandon the idea that European integration is like a bicycle that will fall over unless it keeps moving forward."

"Radio and television programmes will be produced to inform citizens about the Future of Europe... this work must continue irrespective of the debate on the Constitution. The entry into force of the Constitution would enhance the ability of the European Union to deliver on its strategic objectives over the next five years. The Commission and individual Commissioners cannot therefore stand on the sidelines or refrain from entering the political debate."

"Several countries did not fully understand what signing the Maastricht Treaty and joining EMU would imply."

"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion."

"Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party."

"When an opponent declares, 'I will not come over to your side,' I calmly say, 'Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.'"

"The member states have already relinquished control of certain economic and social competences, including justice, liberty and security. Now the difficult part is approaching: the giving up of sovereignty in the dual arenas of foreign affairs and defence... The concept of traditional citizenship has been bypassed in the 21st Century. We are witnessing the last remnants of national politics."

"Go farther and farther and show us a sign
Your children have waited to see.
The morning will come when the world is mine.
Tomorrow belongs to me."

"Each state will continue to be in charge of its own foreign policy, but the member states will be conscious that their policy is all the more efficient for having been decided in common with the member states of the Union."

“What is the advantage... if the Commission can resubmit proposals, even after a significant number of national parliaments, say one third, have voiced concerns? Is this not simply cosmetic?”

"There must be no majority decisions, but only responsible persons, and the word 'council' must be restored to its original meaning."

"Every time I try to remove some piece of Soviet-era regulation, I am told that whatever it is I am trying to scrap is a requirement of the European Commission."

"Europe is a Europe of the nations and the states or it is nothing."

"There is a difference between democracy and populism."

"Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy."

"They really want to seal off parts of Parliament and turn it into a secret chamber... if the eyes of the journalists are being blinded, the public will not hear about what is really going on in this building any more."

"This treaty is everything except a liberal treaty."

"The adoption of the Constitution will make the accession of Turkey very difficult... Turkey's entry is incompatible with the construction of a political Europe founded on a project of European civilisation... Saying 'yes' to the Constitution will give us the means to say 'no' to Turkey."

"I cannot believe that such a program would be rejected by the people of this country."

"Ten years after the Commission first failed to get normal audit blessing on its accounts and controls, it still does not have a proper accountability construct. This extraordinary situation is the major cause of the chronically sordid state of quality accounting,"

"Europe's focus has been primarily on internal integration: inward looking and protectionist policies may have limited its ability to benefit from wider international ties... the EU's focus on internal integration, with policies designed initially to strengthen the links between Member States, may now actively hinder its ability to succeed in a more integrated global economy."

"[The government] cannot continue to peddle what first became the establishment consensus under Macmillan, that there was 'no alternative', with each step in European integration presented as both 'inevitable' and constitutionally insignificant. The significance of building a new potential for political action 'beyond the nation state' has to be justified, not underplayed."

"Europe has done itself more damage through what is perceived as unnecessary interference than all the pamphlets by Eurosceptics could ever do."

"Our continent has seen successive attempts at unifying it: Caesar, Charlemagne and Napoleon, among others. We, for our part, seek to unify it by the pen. Will the pen succeed where the sword has finally failed?"

"Questions of how far to subsidise one’s farmers or how much to pay for protecting the rural environment fall naturally to nation states… it seems strange to demand that the answers should be identical both for a relatively poor country such as Poland, and a richer one such as Denmark... We are not persuaded by the view of the Commission that they are better placed than Member State governments to lead regional development projects… we believe there is a strong case under the principle of subsidiarity for national governments to fund and manage their own regional policy.”

"The idea that the EU is constantly generating ever-increasing levels of regulation is a myth. Over the last decade more EU regulation has been repealed than put on the statute book."

"We have urged the [European] Parliament not to spend any money in the UK. It would be totally counterproductive and inappropriate."

"A European army legitimised and financed through the European Parliament is the visionary goal of German politics."

"People have killed only when they could not achieve their aim in other ways ... there is a broadened strategy, with intellectual weapons ... why should I demoralize the enemy by military means if I can do so better and more cheaply in other ways?"