US Secretary of State Clinton: Europe Is Miracle
World | March 6, 2009, Friday
The US Secretary of State, HIllary Clinton (left), and the European Parliament President, Hans-Gert P?¶ttering, during the Brussels Town Hall meeting on Friday. Photo by BGNES
The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said Friday that Europe today was a "miracle", and that, aside from the effects of the present financial crisis, it has never been so prosperous and secure.
Clinton spoke in a Town Hall-format meeting with young leaders at the European Parliament in Brussels, which was moderated by the EP President, Hans-Gert Pöttering, and was Web cast to locations in 31 European states, including the US Embassy in Bulgaria's capital Sofia.
"The unity of this grand example is impressive as viewed from the other side of the Atlantic", Clinton declared referring to the EU and the over fifty-year-old project of European integration adding jokingly, "I have never understood multiparty democracy. We have only two parties to deal with in the United States".
Both Clinton and Pöttering referred to the formation of the United States of America more than two centuries ago, and to the present process of European integration as instances in which the total is greater than the sum of its parts.
"This is one of the moments in history when we don't have a choice - we have to come together", Clinton said in a call for Trans-Atlantic unity to deal with a long list of pressing global issues.
Clinton expressed her confidence that both the US and the EU were "up to the task", and pointed out that they both should use the present financial and economic crisis as an opportunity to advance environmental and green technology efforts on the domestic and the world stage.
At the end of the modified Town Hall meeting, the European Parliament President semi-jokingly addressed Irish participants in the audience by saying that, since "we need to be united", Ireland should ratify the Lisbon Treaty.
Clinton spoke in a Town Hall-format meeting with young leaders at the European Parliament in Brussels, which was moderated by the EP President, Hans-Gert Pöttering, and was Web cast to locations in 31 European states, including the US Embassy in Bulgaria's capital Sofia.
"The unity of this grand example is impressive as viewed from the other side of the Atlantic", Clinton declared referring to the EU and the over fifty-year-old project of European integration adding jokingly, "I have never understood multiparty democracy. We have only two parties to deal with in the United States".
Both Clinton and Pöttering referred to the formation of the United States of America more than two centuries ago, and to the present process of European integration as instances in which the total is greater than the sum of its parts.
"This is one of the moments in history when we don't have a choice - we have to come together", Clinton said in a call for Trans-Atlantic unity to deal with a long list of pressing global issues.
Clinton expressed her confidence that both the US and the EU were "up to the task", and pointed out that they both should use the present financial and economic crisis as an opportunity to advance environmental and green technology efforts on the domestic and the world stage.
At the end of the modified Town Hall meeting, the European Parliament President semi-jokingly addressed Irish participants in the audience by saying that, since "we need to be united", Ireland should ratify the Lisbon Treaty.
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