Politician

What people call serendipity sometimes is just having your eyes open.

Norway or Switzerland are two marvelous countries, I very much admire, the most advanced countries in the world in fact with great qualities of life.

There is no stability without solidarity and no solidarity without stability.

The euro area must not be treated as an 'opt out' from the European Union.

My mother wanted me to be a professor, because I have several people in my family who are professors at university.

Financial transaction tax raises problems of competition.

I think diversity can also be a resource, an asset, especially in a world that is becoming globalized, to deal with difference, to deal with variety, to deal with complexity.

Growth based on debt is unsustainable, artificial.

The dynamic of globalisation in financial and economic terms, but also in geopolitical terms, confronts Europeans with a stark choice: live together, share a common destiny and count in the world; or face the prospect of disunity and decline.

Smart, sustainable, inclusive growth is the key to job-creation and the future prosperity of Europe.

You have to understand that to have a revolution when you are 18 years old is completely different from normal political leaders who were born in a democracy and will die in a democracy and never to have experienced that change. I have seen that change.

Decisions taken by the most democratic institutions in the world are very often wrong.

You see in times of crisis that extremist forces, populist forces, have a better ground to oversimplify things and to manipulate feelings. Feelings of fear.

Governments are not always right.

There's a tendency in many politicians to become inward-looking, more protectionist, more nationalistic and more defensive, in the bad sense of the word.

I very often compare relations between states to relations with people. Sometimes we are nicer to those we don't know well, who are not our friends, than we are to our friends, because with our friends we don't need to be nice all the time.

In the age of globalisation, pooled sovereignty means more power, not less.

The E.U. is founded on the Treaties which apply only to the Member States who have agreed and ratified them.

Germany is the biggest economy of Europe and we need Germany on board for the economic reforms of Europe, including, of course, the deepening of the internal market, resisting protectionism, and supporting further economic policy coordination.

I'll put it frankly - Britain has more influence in China than Norway or Switzerland, with all respect for the other countries.