European leaders end Alpbach meeting with call for stronger Europe

A meeting of European heads of state ended on Wednesday with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen calling for a more confident European patriotism, ORF reported. The two-day gathering began in Innsbruck on Tuesday and continued at the European Forum Alpbach in Tyrol.

“Europe is the best idea in the world,” Van der Bellen said in a video message issued after the meeting. He described the European project as a “living, flourishing countermodel to backward-looking nationalism” and said it was important to continue believing in the idea of Europe.

He said major challenges including the climate emergency, energy policy, unemployment, poverty, war, displacement, violence, terrorism, flight and migration, as well as digital transformation, could only be solved jointly.

The meeting brought together Belgian King Philippe, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Hereditary Prince Alois of Liechtenstein and Luxembourg’s Grand Duke Guillaume, along with their wives. Swiss President Guy Parmelin left for professional reasons on Tuesday, and an embassy representative took his place.

An “Alpbach Declaration on the Present and Future of Europe” said that European states were an example of peaceful coexistence and could inspire countries around the world. It also said that Europe had experienced the serious economic consequences of unpredictability and chaos in recent years, a passage that ORF described as an apparent indirect criticism of US President Donald Trump.

In a section titled “Europe is security”, Van der Bellen said that alliances once considered unshakable no longer existed in their previous form, referring to the war in Ukraine. Europe needed to be sovereign in its defence capabilities and resilient against attempts from outside to divide its societies, he said.

The leaders were welcomed in Alpbach by Tyrol Governor Anton Mattle, European Forum Alpbach President Othmar Karas and Mayor Markus Bischofer. Their meeting at the Congress Centre took place away from the media.

The 82nd European Forum Alpbach, a forum for discussions and cross-border encounters, began on August 24. This year’s motto is “How Europe wins”, while the leaders’ meeting was held under the related motto “Unity in Europe”.

After their working session, the leaders met scholarship recipients from their respective countries at the Alpbacher Hof. The discussions covered politics, business, the environment and culture. The meeting’s participants left shortly before 2 p.m. under heavy police escort.

On Tuesday, Van der Bellen showed his guests his home region of Tyrol. The programme included a working lunch at Restaurant 1809 on Innsbruck’s Bergisel and an afternoon visit to the mountain landscape of the Stubai Glacier.