In the House of the European Union she gave the speech at a ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the major EU enlargement. “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” she said at the start of her speech. Vienna. “This was not only an attack on me personally, but it was also an attack on our values,” said Edtstadler. It is important “that we fight for our values and never give up, for human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”
At the beginning, the head of the EU Commission representation in Vienna, Wolfgang Bogensberger, thanked the minister for coming. On behalf of the European Commission, he strongly condemned “the apparently anti-Semitic attack”.
The security precautions at the event seemed to be demonstratively increased. Two army soldiers were stationed in front of the entrance to the building in downtown Vienna. The event in the run-up to Europe Day was organized by the embassies of the ten accession countries in 2004 at the initiative of the Czech Republic and Slovenia. A panel discussion included, among others, the Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Cristina Gherasimov, the Montenegrin EU chief negotiator Predrag Zenović, former EU Commissioner Pavel Telička, the former Slovenian EU negotiator Mojmir Mrak and the political scientist Kathrin Stainer-Hämmerle.
Edtstadler praised the EU expansion to include eight Central Eastern European states as well as Malta and Cyprus. “Thanks to you, the European Union is much stronger today than it was 20 years ago,” she said to the assembled ambassadors of the then accession countries. All states have benefited from the EU internal market, but it is important to make it even better by reducing bureaucracy, said Edtstadler, who highlighted the fight against migration, defense policy and enlargement as further priorities. With a view to the European elections, she particularly called on young voters to get involved. “It’s important who sits there,” she said, referring to the European Parliament. She took a sharp stance against the right-wing populist parties. They would only make “empty promises”.
