15:21:42

The uprisings across North Africa and the Arab world pose great challenges for Europe, but also
opportunities we cannot afford to miss. Two principles have to underpin what we do. The first is that
we in Europe know how long and painful the journey towards liberty can be. Our own path to 20th
century liberal democracy was a very slow one. The EU itself was born in the ashes of conflicts that
remind us how terrible life can be when democracy breaks down. Add into that the mixed record of
Europe's empires, and some humility is in order, even as we assert that democracy is the necessary
foundation of human progress.