“Tragic and magnificent Europe” | Opinion

1. Jacques Delors had a particularly happy expression to capture the European “soul”, which so often helps us to understand it better: “Europe, tragic and magnificent.” Delors’ Europe was very different from today’s Europe, but its “soul” or the founding principles with which he wanted to counteract the tragedy of successive wars remain the same. They are, in good measure, its great strength. Since the founding of the European Economic Community in 1958, Europe has gone through numerous crises, which it managed to overcome, while remaining faithful to these founding principles. Today it certainly faces its biggest crisis ever: a major war on European territory, which is being waged on its eastern border and which was provoked by a major nuclear power.