Foreword

Sixty years have passed since Winston Churchill's famous speech in Zurich in which he demanded that a ‘United States of Europe’ be established in order to recreate unity amongst Europeans in the way that Aristide Briand intended. The Treaties of Rome which laid the foundations for the European Economic Community and subsequently for the political union will be 50 years old in March 2007.

We have now almost attained the goal which was formulated with visionary lucidity in the direct aftermath of the Second World War. We have created a European Union which promises Europe a lasting and peaceful future. But we must continue to work on this Community which has been enlarged thanks to the abolition of European divisions, in order to deepen it and to allow those countries who dream of a free and unified Europe to join the EU.

There has been much discussion in the last few years about transparency and proximity to the citizen as it relates to the development of the European Union institutions and their functions. To this end, this guideline offers readers a very good introduction to the European Union.

In my role as former President of the European Commission, I recommend this guideline to everyone wishing to learn more about the structure of the EU institutions and their policy areas. The European institutions need well-educated employees with an awareness of the EU's new role towards its citizens in order to develop further.

This book which is published in several languages and whose objective is to aid young Europeans to prepare for the EU's recruitment procedure is a didactic novelty in this form. For the first time, a book has been created which offers a reality-based approach to prospective employees of the European institutions. It focuses not only on citizens of the long-established member states but also explicitly on those countries which have recently joined the Union and have the same experience of the reality of the European mindset.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish the readers of this book every success in their undertakings,

Jacques Santer
Former President
of the European Commission