GERMANY: Germany's Dr Helmut Kohl welcomed Poland and the Czech Republic into the European Union last night with the simple message: "No more war in Europe."
The former chancellor told a crowd outside the eastern city of Zittau at the meeting point of the German, Polish and Czech borders that a peaceful future in Europe was the simplest and most important reason for European integration.
"We want to honour the dead and tend the graves but we don't want any more soldiers' graves in Europe," said a damp-eyed Dr Kohl. "That is the most important reason for European unification."
On this evening, he said he could see his entire life before him: the second world war, the dictatorships and division, but most of all Germany's "zero hour from which we could never have imagined coming to this point".
Dr Kohl called for an end to talk of old and new Europe, saying that, from today, there was only one Europe, "Europe pure", and called yesterday evening an "evening of thanks" to Churchill, Adenauer, Schuman, and "the help of God for getting us where we are today".
He arrived in the grand old style in Zittau, greeted by huge crowds chanting the old familiar refrain of "Helmut! Helmut!". All day the crowds had arrived in the open fields where the three countries meet in a point, marked by a stone on the bank of the river Neisse. Groups of good-natured day-trippers made their way in from Zittau on foot, passing a curious three year-old Klara as she peered over the fence of a nearby summer garden.
"Grandma, what is going on today?" she asked in a loud voice. "Quite a lot," replied the grandmother with a puzzled grin, muttering, "But where to start?" People streamed over wooden bridges from Poland to Germany, to the Czech Republic and back again. No queues, no passports: some of the few border guards on duty even smiled.
Many had to keep looking to the three national flags for a point of reference, clearly enjoying the confusion of not knowing in which of the three countries they were.
"We're getting new neighbours, simple as that," said Mr Rudolf Bauer from Zittau. "When you think of our history, the war and suffering, that's really something." His friend, Klaus Müller, who lives 500m from the border, seemed slightly more reserved, saying he had "thoughts, but not worries" about unification.
"We have to live here after the speeches are over, where a Czech baker able to bake breadrolls for €2 an hour is competing with a German baker earning €12. But we'll deal with it."
Chancellor Schröder arrives here this morning to sign a declaration with his Czech and Polish counterparts which calls European unification "the answer to the political and economic challenges of our time, a guarantee of peace, freedom ... for our citizens". The three leaders will then fly on together to celebrations in Dublin.
"With the entry of 10 members on May 1st, the dream of many generations of Europeans will become a reality," said Mr Schröder yesterday in a speech to the Bundestag.
In Berlin, huge crowds gathered for a concert at the Gendarmenmarkt plaza and at the Brandenburg Gate.
Back in Zittau yesterday evening, energetic children ignored the speeches and played with a huge jigsaw made of pieces of coloured carpet in the shape of the 25 European states. As they mixed the countries up and passed them around, the last notes of Smetana's My Fatherland echoed over the German-Polish-Czech border, the outer wall of the EU. And a blood-red sun set on the horizon of an old Europe.