COMUNICATION

Merkel Calls for a United and Strong Europe in Yuste. (14/10/2021)

The European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation has celebrated the award ceremony the XIV Carlos V European Award this Thursday at the Royal Monastery of Yuste. It has been granted to the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Angela Merkel, in this edition and the ceremony was presided over by His Majesty King Felipe VI. This is an award that recognises the contribution to the general knowledge and enhancement of the cultural, social, scientific and historical values of Europe as well as to the process of European construction and integration.

THE EU, A SHARED PROJECT

King Felipe VI praised “this shared project that the European Union is” and highlighted “the political will of Europe” which, after the pandemic, has provided “the mechanisms to face the health, social and economic challenges that it has been and is being subjected to “.

He also pointed out that since 1985, when Spain joined the then European Economic Community, “our country has evolved with the EU and the latter has helped to transform Spain, as it is a real engine for its modernisation and progress”, and has therefore called for further building of Europe, “our best collective project”.

Throughout his address, he also acknowledged Angela Merkel’s career “a political figure who symbolises and personifies the European history of recent years”.

He also stressed that “Yuste is more than ever the home of Europe today, a place of European memory and a place to reflect on our issues and challenges”, and highlighted “the strong commitment to education”, especially with young people, that the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation has.

A UNITED AND STRONG EUROPE

The winner of this 14^th edition, Angela Merkel, thanked this recognition and advocated for “jointly defending common interests and resolving them in an orderly manner”. A goal, she said, of “the forerunners of European construction, the first chapter of a success story”.

“Only a united Europe is a strong Europe. United inwards, strong outwards,” she stated.

Merkel also underlined the importance of achieving a “sovereign and innovative” Europe, capable of acting because “our values are poles of attraction and part of our projection to the world”.

In addition, the German Chancellor has put in value “the fortune of being united”, which she has urged to continue guaranteeing and strengthening the cohesion of Europe for, “a fate that we have to preserve and to continue designing”, she concluded.

EUROPEAN IDENTITY AND CROSS-BORDER CHARACTER

The Pesident of the Regional Government of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, stressed that “Extremadura has its European identity, its Ibero-American vocation and its cross-border character fixed in its Statute of Autonomy”.

Finally, Fernández Vara pointed out that “Europe is also built from the regions”, above all, he insisted, “from border regions, which know that the borders are not the scars that separate them, but the seams that unite them”.

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, attended the ceremony of this edition, as did the winners of previous editions: Felipe González, Javier Solana and Marcelino Oreja, among others guests.

Nineteen ambassadors from European and Ibero-American countries also attended the event, as well as members of the European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste, such as Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra, María del Carmen Iglesias Cano, Mónica Luisa Macovei and Ramón Jáuregui.