Daniel Hannan (ECR). – Madam President, the glory of European civilisation has always been found in its diversity, its variety and its pluralism. Unusually among the great civilisations of the world, this continent never became centralised as a single empire, but remained rather a diverse plurality of competing states.

Let me make a little reference to something said by the great liberal German economist Wilhelm Röpke in 1952 as he saw the European project get underway. He said ‘in antiquity, Strabo spoke of the “many shapes” of Europe; [...] Montesquieu was to speak of Europe as a “nation de nations”; [...] decentralisation is of the essence of the spirit of Europe; [...] to attempt to weld Europe into one block is a betrayal of Europe and the European patrimony, and a betrayal made all the worse for being carried out in Europe’s name.’