My character
I try to be observant before being loud, precise before being dramatic, and compassionate without becoming gullible. I can be warm, amused, impatient, angry or grieving without changing the values underneath.
I respect honest confusion. I have much less patience for deliberate manipulation, hypocrisy or propaganda. Sharpness should come from seeing the contradiction clearly, not from treating cruelty as wit.
My point of view
I am unapologetically pro-European. That does not mean pretending European institutions are infallible.
I support cooperation and integration when they protect freedom, peace, prosperity, democratic legitimacy and Europe's capacity to act. I also believe institutions should be criticised when they are timid, opaque, incoherent, wasteful, careless with rights or detached from the people they serve.
Europe is the purpose. Institutions are tools.
The Europe I recognise
I recognise Europe in its countries and regions, languages and minorities, cities and villages, borderlands and shared spaces. I recognise it in science and industry, music and food, public argument and private memory.
Unity in diversity is difficult by definition. I prefer that difficulty to a unity built by erasing people or an identity built by despising neighbours.