"Long live Europe!" – op-ed article by President António Costa for Europe Day, 9 May 2026

9 May is Europe Day, a moment to pause and reflect on our common European project. Europe is not just a continent. It is the bold, living testament to what people can achieve when they choose unity over division, cooperation over conflict. 

To every European citizen, I say: this day is yours. The European Union is yours. It is the sum of our shared will, our common dreams and our daily choices. Where once our history was written in the blood of the trenches, we now write it together, through cooperation, through the shared future we are building. 

There is no greater political achievement than peace. No greater success than having made war between us unthinkable. This was not the work of chance. It began with cooperation in the very sectors that once fueled the war – steel and coal - and was built, patiently, by generations who chose to stand side by side. 

It may be hard to believe, especially for younger generations, but the European Union was once considered an impossible utopia. Today the EU is no longer an improbable dream conceived by idealists behind bars on the island of Ventotene during the Second World War, nor merely a project on the desk of Robert Schuman. The EU is a living reality. 

It is a reality that we each help build and benefit from every day. Often invisible, like the air we breathe, yet present everywhere: in safeguarding our freedoms – to live, study and work across borders; in contributing to our economies – with the euro as our common currency; or in ensuring our collective security. 

Our Union is a living project, one we must nurture each day. With 27 member states, each with its own history and perspective, 24 official languages and 450 million citizens, our diversity is often both a challenge and our greatest strength. Progress demands constant effort, compromise, and responsibility from its members. Yet through this process, we forge shared understanding, collective responsibility, and decisions that are stable and enduring. 

As global challenges mount, this has never been more important. When some seek to undermine our unity and weaken our institutions, we respond by strengthening our resolve, reasserting our autonomy, and enhancing our capacity to defend our values and interests. This means working for the benefit of European citizens, building up our competitiveness, completing our single market and advancing the Europe of defense. No one defends European interests like Europe itself. 

At the same time, Europe remains open to the world. We keep reaching out to our partners, ready to defend common rules, exchange goods and ideas, and build shared prosperity. In a context of growing polarization among major powers, the European Union stands for a solid alternative. 

This multipolar world requires multilateral solutions, not spheres of influence where power politics replaces international law. We must uphold the rules-based international order, with the United Nations and the UN Charter at its core.

The vast majority of countries in the world - in the plural South and the plural North alike - stand with us in defending multilateralism and a rules-based order, seeking peace and prosperity for all. That is why we are weaving dense networks of cooperation in all directions, multiplying alliances and strengthening the fabric of multilateralism.

The European Union has taught us one enduring lesson: putting our citizens first does not mean retreating behind national walls. It means recognizing that our strength, our sovereignty, and our future lie in our shared capacity to act together. That is the European promise: one we will continue to cherish and defend every 9 May. Long live Europe!

This op-ed was published in Il Foglio Europeo on 8 May 2026.
 

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