Welcome to the page of the State Visit to Germany

Honourable Burgomaster
Honourable President of the European Parliament
Distinguished officials
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you, Mr Burgomaster, for your kind words of welcome. I would like to share with everyone present my pleasure at being in this lovely city of Osnabrück, in this historic building. In this place we can encounter the memory of Europe, in its deepest ancestry. Founded in 780, Osnabrück was an extremely important trade and business centre in the Middle Ages. This was where the negotiations that culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia took place: a landmark in the history of Europe.

Our memory of the past makes us answerable for the future.

The beauty and history of Osnabrück make it the perfect place to ponder the future of Europe. The European Union has a duty to remember. In a city founded by Charlemagne, in a building that sealed the end of the Thirty Years’ War, the memory of Europe is, in this present time of uncertainty, a reason for hope and confidence in the future.

I will shortly have the chance to visit one of the city's schools and discuss the future of Europe with the students there, along with my friend, the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering.

The Europe we want is a Europe of citizens and the Europe of citizens will be created through dialogue, through the discussion of ideas. This discussion of ideas has to involve young people, because we need their enthusiasm and because it will be up to them to carry on this unique project, to which we owe so much.

I shall also have the opportunity during my stay in Osnabrück to meet the large Portuguese community, my compatriots, who live here and whose hard work and enterprising spirit has contributed in no small part to the progress of this region.

I would like to finish by thanking you once again, Burgomaster, for the exceptional kindness which my wife and I, and everyone who has accompanied me on this visit, have been shown. We shall not forget it, and I wish you and all the people of this magnificent city every success and happiness.