Weidenfeld, Lord George

Ladies and gentleman, a few words of welcome that you could find the time to come here and support this venture of the Europaeum. Also, I express my gratitude to our host, the Sorbonne, and our sponsors, DaimlerChrysler, one of whose senior managers is here, and will address us later. Thirdly, a few words of orientation, of the genesis of the project and the future vision, and the relevance of the project. It is exactly ten years ago that the Europaeum was founded and the spark of the idea came really as a result of the great changes in Europe.

I am very privileged and gratified to talk to you today. I think it is most appropriate to have this meeting at the Humboldt University, Berlin, because of the impetus for the creation of the European network, the sequence of events, and that great turning point of history, which is symbolised by the fall of the Berlin wall. It was that particular impulse that started an enterprise to bring together teachers and students in, first of all, Western European Universities to offer resources to those universities which had only recently emerged in other parts of Europe – the reason we started the Europaeum network.