welcome to Alpbach. And welcome to the Conference Days of the European Forum Alpbach 2026.

This year we did not give ourselves a slogan. We gave ourselves a task: How Europe Wins. Not a question. Not a hope. Not a headline. A sentence that only becomes true if we do something about it.

In 1945, this village hosted the first European university weeks. Our continent was destroyed. People came to Alpbach because the farmers of this valley fed them. They had no money. They had no institutions. Many of them had lost everything.

What they brought was hope, a promise, and a decision. The hope was that the future could be better than the past. The promise was: never again. And the decision was to learn from painful experience, together, across borders and across parties.

Eighty-one years later, with all the highs, the lows and the mistakes, this is a success story. And this is the first thing I mean by winning: Europe wins when it learns from experience.

Many people today think all of our democratic achievements are normal. As if they were given. As if peace, freedom and the single market were part of the weather. I call them the sleepwalkers. I borrow that word from Christopher Clark and his book, from how he describes the leaders of 1914. They were not uninformed. They simply did not draw the consequences from what they saw.

The sleepwalkers today are not the extremists. They are people in the middle, in politics, in business, in the media, who see what is happening and still believe that it will pass. They believe that when Trump loses the midterm elections, when Putin agrees to a ceasefire and simply keeps the land he took, then everything will go back to how it was.

For example for the people of Ukraine, nothing will be as it used to be. The people of Ukraine are not only defending their country. For years now, they have been defending all the values and principles that the EFA and the European Union stand for.

And despite all this, some sleepwalkers say it out loud: give the nationalists a chance, let them lead governments, they will fail, and then we are back.

These sleepwalkers have to understand: There is no way back to before. What we are living through is not a bad season. It is a fight about who is allowed to break the rules, instead of rules that hold for everyone.

Helmut Kohl, in his last essay, written out of concern for Europe, asked: „Have we all gone mad? Have we forgotten where we come from?“ I do not read that question as a memory. I read it as a task for us, here, this week.

Now why are so many people asleep? I think there is an honest answer: A democracy stays strong as long as it can keep one promise: that tomorrow can be better than today. When that promise becomes uncertain, people do not become extremists overnight. First they become tired. Then they become angry. Then they stop listening.

I met a lot of people this summer. Entrepreneurs, researchers, employees, pensioners, students. They told me about the rules that do not fit, the decisions that take too long, the projects that never arrive. They shake their heads about Trump and Putin, about the poll numbers of the extreme right. Almost every one of them has a point.

But being right is not the same as being useful. Complaining does not lead us out of the valley. It hides our strengths. It hides our successes. It hides our chances. And it delivers, every single day, the raw material that the populists, the nationalists and the extremists need.

The extremes live from this mood. But let us be honest: the centre feeds it far too often. We feed it when we explain a decision only after we have taken it. We feed it when we blame Brussels for what we agreed to ourselves. We feed it when we copy the language of the extremes and hope that it makes us popular.

So this is my appeal, and I include myself: Let us stop complaining. Let us stop blaming. Let us stop making ourselves small. Let us stop the excuses for why something cannot be done.

People want leadership. That wish is legitimate. Today it is offered by the loudest voices and the simplest answers. „I will end the war“, says Donald Trump. „We will not accept a single asylum application any more“, says Herbert Kickl. Sentences like these – sadly – win the moment. They never become reality.

The democratic centre has to fill this need for leadership differently. Not volume, but results. Not slogans, but delivery. Not announcements, but implementation. Not withdrawal, but participation, reasons and debate.

And we can do this. Because we already know what to do. That is the encouraging part of this evening, and also the painful part. The „to dos“ have been on the table for years. They are not new and not a secret. And still, we fail to deliver.

Let me just give you three short examples.

First: We divide what should be one market. Our single market has 450 million citizens. With the candidate countries it could serve more than 600 million. And yesterday the people of Iceland voted to reopen their talks with us. While we doubt ourselves, others want to come in. That should tell us something about our own strength. But still, a company that wants to sell in Europe has to think in 27 versions of the same rule.

Second: We save our money and then send it abroad. Around 33 trillion euro of private savings sit in bank deposits in Europe. Roughly 300 billion of it flows into the American economy every year. Our money builds someone else’s future. And then we wonder why our best companies grow up somewhere else.

Third: We add rules instead of agreeing on one rule for all. We agree something in Europe, and then we make it even harder at home. National governments add their own layers on top, invent their own exceptions, and afterwards they call the result Brussels bureaucracy.

I am therefore delighted that Enrico Letta – Mr. Single Market – is with us today to open the Conference Days. No one could explain better how the gap between analysis and action can be bridged. Thank you, Enrico, for being here with us today.

Jean-Claude Juncker once described our problem better than anyone: „We all know what to do. We just don’t know how to get re-elected after we have done it.“ That sentence is honest. But it cannot be our excuse. So the question tonight is not what should be done. The question is why we still have not done it.

Let me come back to our task. When we say How Europe Wins, we do not mean winning in the usual sense. We do not mean winning against someone. Working together makes us able to act. It makes us faster, better and cheaper. Working together is what makes us sovereign. Without it we lose. So the answer is simple: Europe wins when Europe acts together.

And this brings me to the last thought I want to leave with you today. In 1953, Winston Churchill was asked how one should prepare for the responsibility of leading a state. His answer was short: „Study history. Study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft.“

I have come to believe that we did not follow that advice well enough. At best, some of us have a feeling for western European history, and others for eastern European history. A shared one? For most people, the national border is still the horizon. And that is one of the real reasons why we misunderstand each other, and why we blame each other so easily.

A Union of this continent will only exist if we know about each other. About the different paths, the open wounds, the cultures, the religions, the crises that were survived, and about the words that mean something different in Warsaw than they do in Vienna or in Lisbon.

That is what these days are for. In Alpbach we want to get to know each other. To talk with each other. And to learn from each other. So take part. Listen. Disagree. Argue. Talk to the people you did not come here with.

Because with the European Forum Alpbach it is like with democracy, and like with the European Union: it becomes what we make of it.

Thank you very much.

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wir beenden heute mit dem Tirol Tag intensive Tage ganz im Zeichen der Region. Und wir beginnen im selben Moment unsere Conference Days. Das ist kein Zufall. Wir begehen die Euregio Days und den Tirol Tag heuer nicht am Anfang.Und nicht am Ende. Sondern in der Mitte.

Die Mitte verbindet. Die Mitte gibt Halt. Aus der Mitte kommt die Kraft. Für uns ist das ein Bekenntnis: Die Region ist nicht das Vorprogramm Europas.

Meine sehr geehrten Damen und Herren,

man fragt mich oft, was Alpbach von anderen Orten unterscheidet. Meine Antwort sind zwei Dinge, die man nicht kurzfristig herstellen kann: der Ort und die Zeit.

Der Ort. Ein Bergdorf zwingt zur Begegnung. Man kann einander nicht ausweichen.  Die Wege sind kurz, die Abende lang.Und das Wesentliche entsteht oft weit weg von den offiziellen Sessions.

Und die Zeit. Wer nur zum eigenen Auftritt anreist, hat das Prinzip nicht verstanden. Substanz braucht Verweildauer. Das ist unbequem in einer Zeit, die nach dem schnellen Auftritt verlangt. Es ist trotzdem richtig.

Beides steuert nicht nur das Forum bei. Beides steuert diese Region bei. Dafür danke ich Ihnen allen sehr herzlich.

Die Euregio Tirol, Südtirol und Trentino sind der lebende Beweis, warum es ein entschlossenes Europa braucht. Warum wir besser gemeinsam handeln. Drei Regionen.  Zwei Sprachen.Eine gemeinsame Geschichte, die einmal eine Grenze bekommen hat.Und heute: Grenzen, die zu Brücken geworden sind. Vielfalt, die zur Stärke geworden ist. Nachbarn, die zu Partnern geworden sind.

Regionen sind die Labore der europäischen Wirklichkeit. Sie wissen, wo die Fachkräfte fehlen, wo der Verkehr nicht funktioniert, wo Energieprojekte gelingen und wo Zusammenarbeit ganz konkret hilft. Gerade die Grenzregionen zeigen: Europa ist keine Theorie. Europa ist tägliche Praxis. Dass die Euregio heuer in der Mitte des Forums steht, ist deshalb auch ein Ergebnis. Das Ergebnis wieder erwachter, starker Verbindungen zwischen der Euregio und dem European Forum Alpbach.

Wir nehmen aus diesen Euregio Days eine Erfahrung mit, die in der großen europäischen Debatte viel zu oft fehlt: Zusammenarbeit ist kein Verlust an Eigenständigkeit. Zusammenarbeit ist das, was uns handlungsfähig macht. Was hier in den Regionen gelingt, brauchen wir im Großen.

Vielen Dank.

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Thank you for being here. It is my honour — and my duty — to open the Austria in Europe Days for the first time as President of the EFA.

This year we mark 80 years of the European Forum Alpbach. Since 1945, this village has been a place where Europe learned to breathe again: to think freely, to listen respectfully, and to work across borders. Vision met responsibility here. Ideas met reality.

We also mark 30 years of Austria in the European Union. In 1995, Austria chose Europe — not as a slogan, but as a direction. It was a choice for freedom of movement, for the Single Market, for common rules, for shared responsibility. My generation remembers that journey. We remember when “Europe” was not yet a home, but a horizon. We remember the long debates, the referenda, the efforts to adapt and to contribute.

We moved from a dream, to an idea, to reality.

For many young Europeans today, this dream was already a reality when they were born. Erasmus is normal. Working in Munich or Madrid is normal. Paying in euro is normal. Peaceful borders are normal. The extraordinary has become ordinary — and that is a success story.

But look at the young people – for example from our Alpbach Clubs in Georgia, Montenegro, or Macedonia. They remind us of something essential: what many of us now take for granted is for others still a project of hope. They live and work for the same European promise that earlier generations in Austria, Germany or France once worked for.

This is why our words today matter.

Too often we treat European ambition as paperwork. We bureaucratise our visions. We call things “technical” that are actually political. Completing the Single Market, extending Schengen — yes, they matter. But they are not just files; they are signals: do we still believe in Europe enough to finish what we started?

Let me be clear. Vision does not mean ignoring details. But vision must come before the details. Did Robert Schuman in nineteen hundred fifty know every article of future treaties? Of course not. He offered a direction: peace through shared sovereignty, prosperity through a common market, dignity through the rule of law. The European Union of 1992 under the Maastricht Treaty was the mature expression of that direction — realised decades after the vision was first spoken, long after Schuman had left public office, even after his passing.

He did not work for the next headline. He worked for the next generation.

Today, politics is judged instantly. Every decision is measured in likes and polls. That makes patience harder. It also makes leadership more necessary. Leadership means planting trees under whose shade we may never sit. It means holding a course when the weather changes. It means saying yes to a good direction, even before you know every footnote.

Austria’s story inside Europe tells us that this courage pays off. Thirty years of membership have made us stronger, safer, more open. Our businesses grow across borders; our students learn across languages. We gained voice in the world by choosing a common voice in Europe. But we also know: nothing stays strong by itself. If we are honest, our challenge goes deeper. We must put Europe’s competitiveness on the ground. 

 Let me ask a simple question: How strong would we be if we were truly a UNION?

• Not twenty-seven parallel monologues, but one conversation with many accents.
• Not twenty-seven versions of the same rule, but one market that works.
• Not twenty-seven procurement plans, but defence that is compatible, affordable, and real.

A Union that matches its size with its will, and its words with results.

Europe does not lack talent, savings, or ideas. It sometimes lacks delivery. We decide together — and then we delay. We announce a goal — and then we make its implementation harder than necessary. Whenever we moved together — on vaccines, on energy, on support for Ukraine — Europe mattered. Whenever we moved apart, we paid.

The younger generation understands this. They are not asking for perfect institutions; they are asking for results they can feel. They ask us to stop confusing speed with haste, and patience with delay.

And here is where Alpbach has a special role. Alpbach is a place for dialogue, for different perspectives.A place where we take time for the questions that do not fit into a news cycle. Some might say this goes against the zeitgeist — that there is not enough action in reflection. As President, let me be crystal clear: this is exactly what we want. We want a Europe that thinks deeply, decides wisely, and acts together. We must show the next generation that a united Europe is not just a chapter in a history book — it is work in progress that needs their hands and hearts.

Let me close where I began: From a dream, to an idea, to reality — this has been Austria’s Europe journey, this has been the journey of millions of Europeans. Let us help others make the same journey, and let us keep making it ourselves: with vision, with patience, and with the quiet courage that the European Forum Alpbach has cultivated for eighty years.

Thank you.

The post „From a dream, to an idea, to reality“ #EFA25 first appeared on Othmar Karas.

distinguished guests, excellencies, dear friends of Alpbach,

and especially: Honourable Foreign Ministers of Austria, Romania, and the Czech Republic,

I am grateful that you are with us today. Your presence is a reminder that Europe’s strength is cooperation in practice.

This is my first opening of the Europe in the World Days as President of the European Forum Alpbach. I feel the honour – and I feel the duty.

We meet at a time when many certainties are no longer certain: a brutal war against Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East, and rising geopolitical and economic tensions.

People feel that history has become heavier again — and they ask, with reason: where is Europe in all this?

I want to start with a simple fact: Europe is not small. 

Our Union is home to more than 450 million citizens. Our market is one of the largest in the world. Our science, our culture, our industry, our values — they matter.

Yet too often, the world does not hear our voice with the strength it deserves. Too often, we do not hear it ourselves.

That is what I want to give you as today’s „take away“: we will be taken seriously when we take ourselves seriously. When we act as a Union, not as a collection of hesitations. When we match our size with our will, and our words with results.

In recent years we learned, sometimes the hard way, that there is no way back to yesterday. War, pandemic, price pressures and climate urgency have changed the world around us. People feel it. They are less patient with speeches and more demanding of delivery. They want leaders who are calm in crisis, honest about trade-offs, and clear about direction. They want Europe to be present when decisions are made — not only informed afterwards.

Only days ago, the world watched the summit between President Trump and President Putin about Ukraine. The European Union was not at the table; Europe was briefed afterwards. That cannot be our role. We must be part of the decisions that shape our continent.

If we expect to be heard, we must stand behind our European representatives and stop whispering in 27 different directions.

Europe is not ignored because it is weak by nature. Europe is often ignored when it chooses to be small — when we fragment our market, delay what we decided together, or let vetoes win over common sense. The gap is not in our potential; the gap is between agreement and action. To close that gap, we must do a few things — not new things, but necessary things.

We learned this with vaccines, with energy, with sanctions, with support to Ukraine. Every time we moved together, we mattered. Every time we moved apart, we paid for it.

We must protect what makes us credible: our democracy, the rule of law, human dignity,the dignity of facts, respect for minorities and free media. These are not accessories. They are security assets. Partners trust us because of them. Our own citizens trust us because of them.

Some will say that the world will move on without us anyway — that others will cut deals over other people’s heads, that force will speak louder than law, that the age of rules is over. I do not accept that. 

Law without power is naïve. Power without law is dangerous. Europe’s mission is to unite the two. 

This brings me to Alpbach. Alpbach is different. It is not a stage for shouting. It is a place for listening, for thinking, for speaking with respect. And for bringing people, disciplines and interests together. Here, we take time for the questions that do not fit into a news cycle. That may be against the current zeitgeist of hurry and outrage. But leadership, real leadership, means making time for what truly matters.

So, in these Europe in the World Days, I ask that we use the European Forum Alpbach for what it does best: to ask the difficult questions — and to ask them together.

• Are we ready to speak with one voice when it counts, not only when it is easy?
• Are we ready to turn common decisions into common delivery?
• Are we ready to explain to our citizens not only what we want, but what it takes — the choices, costs, and benefits?

As Jean-Claude Juncker once put it: “We all know what to do; we just don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it.” Honesty demands we learn how – because not doing the right thing is no longer an option.

If our answer to these questions is yes, Europe will be heard. If our answer is yes, our partners will see Europe not as a commentator, but as a reliable partner at the table. And our young people will look to Europe not as a promise delayed, but as a future they can build.

Let me say again what I hope you will take from this opening: Europe will be taken seriously when it takes itself seriously — in its words, in its will, and in its work.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we will not solve everything in these days. But we can do something more important: we can set a direction and commit to it. We can bring honesty to our debates and courage to our choices. We can make Europe’s size visible again — not only in numbers, but in purpose.

Thank you for your trust. Thank you for your commitment for a strong and united Europe. And thank you for giving us, what the world rarely gives us: your time — time to think deeply, to decide wisely, and to act together.

Let‘s start here in Alpbach. Thank you very much.

The post „Every time we moved together, we mattered“ #EFA25 first appeared on Othmar Karas.

Willkommen in der BürgerInnenkammer Europas, willkommen in Europa.

Diese Konferenz ist kein Marketinggag, sie ist eine Premiere, sie ist eine Notwendigkeit – wie die meisten Redner heute gesagt haben. Sie ist ein dynamischer Prozess und sie ist eine Chance – nützen wir diese Chance!

Wir, die Bürgerinnen und Bürger Europas können die Verantwortung über unsere gemeinsame Zukunft – die Zukunft Europas – nicht abschieben. Wir, jeder von uns sollte sie selbst übernehmen.

„Die Zukunft wird jenen gehören, die wieder Hoffnung signalisieren können.“, hat Teilhard de Chardin einmal gesagt.

Wenn wir die Hoffnungen der Bürgerinnen und Bürger in die europäische Idee, in die liberale Demokratie, in das europäische Projekt erfüllen wollen, müssen wir demokratischer werden, handlungsfähiger werden, innovativer statt nationalpopulistischer, sozialer und Blockaden beseitigen, grüner, entschlossener, aufrichtiger, politischer, geeinter sein. Wir müssen mit den Bürgerinnen und Bürgern, die in Europa leben einen neuen Vertrag für Europa erarbeiten und bei der ersten europaweiten Volksabstimmung die Mehrheit der Staaten, die Mehrheit der Bürger mit der nächsten Europaparlamentswahl abstimmen.

Nehmen wir uns Robert Schumann und seine Rede vom 9. Mai 1950 zum Vorbild. Es gilt die Ereignisse, die wir beschreiben mit mehr Miteinander und einer neuen Solidarität zu beantworten.

Die Konferenz zur Zukunft Europas ist eine Chance unsere EU demokratischer, effizienter und sozialer zu machen. Am Ende muss ein neuer Vertrag für Europa stehen, der den Anliegen der BürgerInnen gerecht wird. Über diesen müssen wir gemeinsam mit der nächsten EU-Wahl abstimmen. pic.twitter.com/IXZmG8gIaY

— Othmar Karas (@othmar_karas) June 20, 2021

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