On Thursday 15 December 2016, the Alphonse Weicker Foundation organised a lecture entitled “Europe’s Disease” given by Guy Verhofstadt, author of the recent book with the same title.
Guy Verhofstadt served as Prime Minister of Belgium for nine years, from 1999 to 2008. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 2009, leads the parliamentary group “Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe” (ALDE) and has been appointed as the European Parliament's Brexit negotiator.
Guy Verhofstadt talked to the audience about his vision of Europe, one that does not consist in building a super-European state but instead in taking a decisive step towards a more efficient and democratic Europe. In his analysis of the downward spiral of the European project – once so ambitious and now an institutional quagmire – the author of “Europe’s Disease” takes no prisoners. He champions the heritage of the founding fathers of the Union and proposes a rejuvenation of the forgotten European Constitution, drafted in 1953.
Commenting, Kik Schneider, Chairman of the Alphonse Weicker Foundation, said “The organisation of specialist conferences on topical themes is a central element in the work of our foundation. We are therefore particularly pleased to once again welcome to Luxembourg an exceptional public speaker in the person of Guy Verhofstadt. In today’s world, marked by latent pessimism on the future of Europe and a tenacious and potentially destructive wave of political populism, opportunism, terrorism and organised crime, Guy Verhofstadt shares with us his point of view on a revitalised, unanimous and more secure European Union.”
