He contributed substantially, more than others, to the reconciliation between European history and European geography." "Helmut Kohl was a German patriot, but he was also a European patriot," said Juncker, the only current leader in Europe to have worked alongside the iconic figure. "A giant of the post-war period has left us," European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said in an oration in French and German. A French city on the Rhine border with Germany, Strasbourg is located in a region that once was bloodily contested by France and Germany. Its location, along with Brussels, as the seat of the European Parliament is an emblem of the post-war reconciliation between the two former enemies that was fostered by the EU.

Source: The Local July 01, 2017 08:14 UTC