In this interview excerpt, Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg and President of the Eurogroup, describes the national interests that need to be preserved for Luxembourg in the context of European integration, particularly referring to the benefits of the international financial centre in Luxembourg and the question of the seats of the European institutions.

In this interview excerpt, Wilfried Martens, Belgian Prime Minister from 1979 to March 1981 and December 1981 to 1992 and President of the European People’s Party (EPP) since 1990, discusses the circumstances in which he first developed an interest in European integration.

In this interview excerpt, Wilfried Martens, co-founder of the European People’s Party (EPP) in 1976 and President of the EPP since 1990, discusses the circumstances surrounding the preparation of the statutes of the future EPP and also describes his reaction to the party’s failure at the first elections to the European Parliament by universal suffrage in 1979.

In this interview excerpt, Wilfried Martens, co-founder of the European People’s Party (EPP) in 1976 and President of the EPP since 1990, outlines the ideological basis of the party when it was founded and the developments resulting from the 1992 Athens Programme. He also looks at the role played in spreading the EPP’s values by the youth section and the women’s section, as well as by other professional and trade union organisations affiliated to the party.

In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Head of the Delegation of the European Communities in London from 1956 to 1973, comments on the negotiations for the accession of the United Kingdom to the European Communities and describes the opinion of the British leaders on the European Commission and its role in the process of Community integration.

In this interview excerpt, Wilfried Martens, co-founder of the European People’s Party (EPP) in 1976 and President of the EPP since 1990, explains the role played by the EPP, via various political foundations such as the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, in organising party systems in Central and Eastern Europe after the collapse of communism in the 1980s and 1990s.

In this interview excerpt, Wilfried Martens, Belgian Prime Minister from 1979 to March 1981 and December 1981 to 1992 and President of the European People’s Party (EPP) since 1990, explains his motivations when he took over the party leadership. He also discusses the moment he was left off the top of the list of his national party (the Christian People’s Party, or CVP) at the European Parliament elections in June 1999, despite the fact that he was leader of the EPP Parliamentary Group at the time.

In this interview excerpt, Wilfried Martens, Belgian Prime Minister from 1979 to March 1981 and December 1981 to 1992 and President of the European People’s Party (EPP) since 1990, describes how, after leaving his post as Prime Minister, he sought to make the role of party leader more than the often merely ceremonial position it had previously been; in practice, the party leadership was exercised to a large extent by its secretary general.

In this interview excerpt, Wilfried Martens, Belgian Prime Minister from 1979 to March 1981 and December 1981 to 1992 and President of the European People’s Party (EPP) since 1990, gives his response to the accusations sometimes made that the EPP encouraged the emergence of a right-wing Europe by agreeing to work with the British Conservatives, with José Maria Aznar’s People’s Party and with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. He also discusses the so-called ‘bungalow’ conservations organised by Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Bonn to determine the criteria that should be applied when deciding which European conservative parties to accept within the EPP.