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"We need more Europe": An Interview with Sir Graham Watson

Posted on 22 February 2018

“It’s the best job in the world. You have a tremendously privileged position,” says Sir Graham Watson, former Member of the European Parliament, about being an MEP. He adds that he was lucky to have held several important positions in European politics: “That gave me a span of over 20 years in which I felt I was able to contribute to the building of Europe”.

Sir Graham, currently member of the European Economic and Social Committee, visited the Historical Archives of the European Union on 12 February 2018 to take part in the Archive’s educational programme.  This project brings together Florentine students and former MEPs to teach the students about the history and institutions of the European Union.

During his visit, he also took some time to conduct research for his upcoming biography on Russell Johnston and to speak to us about his experiences as an MEP as well as sharing his thoughts on Europe.

He says, “I hope I will find some papers from his [Russell Johnston’s] early days in the European Parliament, not just official papers about what he did but perhaps correspondence, other things that help me understand the person.”

Sir Graham deposited his papers, which cover the entirety of his political career, at the HAEU in the spring of 2016. He says: “I think it’s very important to establish a common archive where we have a record of what has happened in the building of the European Union.”

Although he worked in British national politics for some time as a Liberal Democrat, the majority of his career, from 1994 to 2014, was served in the European Parliament. This includes being the first leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and being President of the ALDE, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party.

He says: “I’ve learned the value of European cooperation and the importance of the European institutions in preventing conflict and in promoting understanding. This is the biggest peace project in the world and the most successful.”

He adds that there is a particular memory that stands out to him, from a meeting convened by Angela Merkel around 2006 where she was trying to persuade people to recommit to the European idea. “There was a speech by Romano Prodi in which he talked about what is necessary to build Europe and he listed all of the things necessary and then he added ‘and a little bit of madness’. And he was right.”

In this regard, Sir Graham thinks “more Europe” is necessary to improve the Union. He adds, “We have to create the concept of European Union citizenship: it exists in law but it does not exist in the minds of our people”.

He finished his visit to the Archives by speaking at the second edition of the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre’s seminar series, where he shared details about both his archives deposited at the HAEU and his personal political experiences.

Sir Graham concluded that: “There are many memories of times where I was very proud of the European Union, many memories of times when I was not very proud of the European Union and many very funny memories of things that happened because we are all human beings.”

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