BERLIN: Germany’s president called for English to be made the language of the EU as he appealed to the UK to stay in the European Union. Joachim Gauck earned applause for his remarks made in Berlin on Friday during a speech on the future of Europe at a time when Germans are showing increasing scepticism towards the Union.

“Dear English, Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish and new British citizens, we want to continue having you on board,” he said. “We need your experience as the oldest parliamentary democracy, we need your traditions, your sober-mindedness and your courage.”

He said that to encourage more commonality, Europe needed a common language as well as encouraging multi-lingualism. “I am convinced that, in Europe, both can live side by side,” he said, “the sense of being at home in your mother tongue, with all its poetry, as well as a workable English for all of life’s situations and all age groups.”

Appealing to Britons’ sense of historical responsibility he emphasised the formative role the UK had played in founding modern Europe by its fight against Nazi Germany; if only for that reason, he said, the UK had an important role to play.

“You helped to save our Europe with your engagement in the Second World War — it is also your Europe, and more Europe cannot mean a Europe without you. Only with you can we tackle the future.”

The remarks, which took two minutes of his hour-long speech, followed David Cameron’s pledge to call a referendum on Britain’s EU relationship, calls that have caused much consternation and criticism in Berlin.

Gauck used the much anticipated, nationally televised address to call for “more Europe” and greater communication between member states, but he also sought to allay fears that Germany was becoming too powerful in the union and aspired to impose a “diktat” on the rest of the continent. He said, the time had come for Europeans to have a more active relationship with the Union. “Don’t ask what Europe can do for you, but ask what you can do for Europe,” he said.

By arrangement with the Guardian