Jacques SanterPrime Minister, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.
First, may I thank you Prime Minister for your very warm welcome and for your kind words. You referred to the visit I made as far back as 1979. Then, as now, we enjoyed seeing this beautiful city and meeting its welcoming people and may I say how very much we enjoyed this morning going to that very impressive War Memorial and how grateful we were to have the opportunity of meeting so many Luxembourgers who did such wonderful things during those dark days.
The choice of this historic building for today's lunch has of course a particular significance. The Abbey was founded by a Northumbrian monk, Saint Willibrord, thirteen hundred years ago, and he is buried here. What remarkable travellers those mediaeval churchmen from Britain were. Nothing stopped them from achieving their goal. They reached an extraordinary number of distant lands and did wonderful work in pursuit of their deepest beliefs. [end p1]
Prime Minister, for over a thousand years, as the tides of history have ebbed and flowed, as alliances have risen and fallen, as wars have been fought and peace re-established, Luxembourg has existed as a separate entity at the cross-roads of Europe.
Throughout it all, you have shown that spirit of sturdy independence which is just as much your characteristic today. Your geography has also made you a natural meeting point for Europe, now of course reinforced by Luxembourg's position as a major seat of the European institutions—a position which has Britain's full support.
I should perhaps say that does not wholly extend to the Trademarks and Patents Office where I must declare that we also have an interest.
We also marvel at the prodigious feats you achieve with very few people when Luxembourg has the Presidency of the European Community. It is the clearest possible proof that in bureaucracies, small is best.
You are our partner in the Community and our Ally in NATO; we think alike on most of the great issues of the day, and our relations are in excellent order. Our trade is doing well, but there is always room for improvement and I am delighted to learn of the Luxembourg Trade Mission to the United Kingdom which the Crown Prince will lead in November. It will receive the warmest welcome. [end p2]
Prime Minister, it is a pleasure for me to come on a visit and find so few problems or difficulties to discuss. It makes it so much more enjoyable, and I have indeed enjoyed our talks this morning and I am looking forward to the various visits we shall be making this afternoon. Our views clearly are very much in harmony.
Of course both our countries have had to make some difficult adjustments in recent years. We both have steel industries, they have both had to cut back and I know what a very major role steel plays in your economy.
But you carried out that adjustment skilfully and developed your financial services sector, and I am looking forward to seeing some of those involved in it later, so that your prosperity has been unaffected.
We also have experienced a tremendous development in financial services, with the City of London contributing £9½ billion to our balance of payments last year, and the financial services sector contributing 10%; of GNP, not quite as much as yours, I believe yours is 13%;.
So we both have a strong interest in seeing the completion of the Single Market in this area, giving the maximum freedom to provide financial services throughout the European Community. [end p3]
The framework for this drive to complete the Common Market by 1992 is provided by the Single European Act, which was agreed during the last Luxembourg Presidency. I remember Prime Minister that you kept us at work until 1.00 am in the morning to achieve it, but it was well worth doing and we all congratulated you most warmly upon your great feat in chairing that meeting.
I also recall that when I spoke here at the Churchill Lecture in 1979 I identified in that lecture the achievement of a genuine Single Market to give practical effect to what I described as “the fundamental principle of economic freedom within a framework of just laws” .
Nearly ten years later, we are now well on the way to achieving that and have also made great progress in tackling the other major problems which I pointed to in that speech: the budget and agriculture—although on agriculture at least we still need to go further down the path of reform.
But in these great changes which are taking place, we must ensure that we do not allow Europe to become entangled in a new network of rules and regulations which stifle initiative and enterprise, that would not suit you and it would not suit us and it would not really serve the interests of the Community. [end p4]
You may have heard that I said something about those issues in a speech in Bruges last night and I do not want to go over the same ground now. But in view of some of the comments that have been made, I feel that I should perhaps emphasise one or two points.
I will only say those countries like the Soviet Union, which have tried to run everything from the centre, are now learning that success depends upon dispersing power and decisions away from the centre. And it would be absurd for us in Europe to move in the opposite direction.
A centralised European Government would be a nightmare and we have not rolled back the frontiers of the state at home, only to see them reimposed at a European level. Our future must lie in the willing and active cooperation between Independent sovereign governments, each answerable to their national Parliaments.
Of course we want Europe to be more united, of course we want to work more closely together, but it must not be at the expense of individuality, of the national customs and traditions which have made Europe great in the past and are the best hope for its future. [end p5]
Whatever the theoreticians may say, the reality is that our people want to be European, but they want to be Luxembourgers or Britons too, with control of their own destinies in the hands of their own elected representatives. I am sure that basic feeling is as strong here in Luxembourg, which has preserved its separate existence at the very heart of Europe for over a thousand years, that feeling is as strong here as it is in Britain.
Prime Minister, may I also follow you in saying something very briefly about other developments. We all watch with interest, indeed with awe, the changes taking place in the Soviet Union. We hope that Mr Gorbachev will succeed in the truly massive and historic task he has undertaken. We believe that enlarged freedom will be better for the Russian people and better for all mankind and we wish him well in his bold endeavour.
At the same time, we are beginning to see movement towards solutions to some of the regional conflicts to which you referred, which have long bedevilled international relations: Afghanistan, the Iran/Iraq war, Angola and Namibia, even Cambodia.
In each case there is still a long way to go but at least there is progress where, but a short time ago, there was immobility. I am sure that the basic reason for this is the firmness and resolve which the West has demonstrated, in particular over the last decade. [end p6]
The time when Communism seemed to be on the advance the world over is behind us. Now, for the first time, it is democracy which is marching forward, on the offensive, a peaceful offensive, the world over.
Now more than ever is the time for the West to remain strong and united, and Britain and Luxembourg, as two of the founder and most loyal members of NATO, must give a lead.
We have stood up to the challenge of Communism in its phase of aggression and worldwide expansionism. We must show ourselves just as firm in standing up for basic democratic principles and human rights in a phase of negotiation.
Prime Minister, you have dealt with so many things and the degree of agreement between us is so great that I do not need to repeat the many things you have said.
I would like to thank you very much for the lead which you have given to Europe when Luxembourg has held the Presidency, of your splendid support for the things we believe in and your always marvellous contribution to our many meetings of the European Council. [end p7]
Thank you too for your hospitality and friendship. Thank you too for the frankness that we had in our talks this morning, a frankness which comes from shared beliefs and shared views about the way forward.
May I, therefore, now ask all our guests to rise and join me in a toast to you Prime Minister, to the success of your country and the continued warm relations and cooperation between Britain and Luxembourg.