GREETINGS

Dear friends in EDS,

It is a pleasure for me to once again write a foreword to your Annual Report. This is particularly true this year as you mark the 60th anniversary of European Democrat Students and the 30th anniversary of your publication BullsEye Magazine. As Secretary General of the EPP, I appreciate your contribution and continuous commitment to strengthening our centre-right unity and family. When I think of you, the young generation, the future leaders, and the extraordinary work you are doing I feel that the future of our political family, our values and our unity is in safe hands.

I see the enthusiasm, energy and maturity in continuing the legacy of your predecessors.

This past year has not been easy. We have all faced enormous challenges prompted by the pandemic. However, the EDS demonstrated that in such a difficult time we can trust you. Our political family has remained strong, responsible and united. You are a valuable member. You have led by example.

It would be optimistic to say that we will come out of this crisis stronger both as Europe and as the centre-right but we must always see opportunities brought by challenges. The EU has been forged in crisis. It is important now that we gather strength, seek common ground and maintain the unity of our family. If we stand together, we will overcome all difficulties. The EPP is a responsible and sensible political force. We are the party of the solutions.

I would like to thank the Chairman Carlo Angrisano and Secretary-General Beppe Galea for giving 2 years of hard work, continuous activity and strong growth of the organisation.

Once again, my sincere congratulations and best wishes to you all! I look forward to an even deeper cooperation within the EPP and I hope that we will soon be able to meet in person. Take care!

Atonio López-Istúriz

Secretary General of the European People’s Party

Dear friends in EDS,

When I wrote the foreword to last year’s Annual Report, we were still in the middle of the pandemic.

Today, we can finally have hope. As more and more people get vaccinated, our lives are slowly getting back to some form of normal: we are going back to our offices, planning our holidays and, most importantly, seeing each other face-to-face again.

But the normality we are discovering will not be the one we were used to: not only because we will have to remain very careful and learn to live with the virus for a long time to come, but also because this pandemic has shaken our entire world to its very foundations. Pretending to be going back to “business as usual” would be an illusion.

It is said that the European Union always moves forward more decisively when confronted with a crisis. Because it is in times of crises that we really see how much we need each other. This has never been more true than it is today. No crisis has ever affected us as a community more than the COVID-19 pandemic: it has been detrimental not only to our wallets but especially to our health, our lives, and to the very ways we interact and live together. Who would have thought that such simple and mundane daily gestures like going to the movies or hugging a friend would become our most cherished desires?

We must not waste this opportunity. As we move out of the current crisis – and let us do it in a cautious way – we must also prepare for the future, adapt to a fastchanging world, and increase our resilience to future challenges.

As always, the way forward is through unity. Unity among countries, because never before have we been so acutely aware of how intertwined our destinies are.

Unity among generations, because each and every one of us, the young and the elderly, have been affected by this crisis, in one way or another.

And above all, unity among us, within this great political family that, brick by brick, has built this amazing haven of peace, freedom, and prosperity that we call our Union.

The EPP family is experiencing serious challenges in several countries, including my own. We no longer compete only with our traditional opponents, but with many other adversaries, both inside and outside the EU, some of which do not share even our most basic beliefs in democracy, the rule of law and individual freedoms!

If we are not united, how can we protect our Union from authoritarian regimes like Russia, China or Belarus, which not only repress their own people, but foment divisions among us, undermine our future and challenge our European way of life? How otherwise if not by being united can we counter fake news and distorted narratives spread by all kind of populist, nationalist, and anti-European forces in our own countries?

This will be the primary purpose of this year’s EPP Congress: to strengthen and consolidate the centre-right throughout Europe – starting from the values which unite and define us – so that we can continue to be the main engine of European integration and preserve Europe’s role in the world.

The pandemic has only confirmed that our way of doing politics – based on morals, competence, consistency, credible proposals, and resolute actions – is the most effective one in protecting our citizens and delivering on their expectations.

EDS, as all our other member associations, has made a valuable contribution to the drafting of our Congress document. But if our commitments only remain on paper, we will achieve nothing. Principles such as subsidiarity, solidarity or social market economy cannot become just academic notions we repeat without fully believing in them. We must give them substance, turn them into concrete actions.

This is the crucial work that awaits us and, as always, the EPP also counts on your help to succeed.

Donald Tusk

President of the European People’s Party