Daily Inspiration Quote by Jacques Delors

“Go further together, without excluding the others” is Delors at his most characteristically technocratic: an integrationist argument dressed as reassurance. The line reads like a bridge built out of careful clauses, each one pre-empting the obvious fear that European unity is just a polite name for hierarchy. Delors offers “conception” rather than ideology, “community of exchange and co-operation” rather than a bloc. It’s the language of an economist who understands that markets can integrate faster than publics can emotionally consent.

The intent is pragmatic: create an inner circle of states willing to deepen political and economic ties, while keeping the larger project intact. In other words, variable-speed Europe before the phrase became familiar. The subtext is that uniformity is both unrealistic and unnecessary; what matters is building mechanisms that allow committed members to move ahead without being vetoed by the hesitant. But that “without excluding” is also a tell. Delors knows exclusion is exactly what laggards will feel when decisions migrate to a core group with more shared policy, more shared risk, and more shared leverage.

The context is a Europe trying to reconcile two forces that don’t naturally coexist: expansion and deepening. As the Community widened and ambitions grew (single market, monetary union), consensus became harder to manufacture. Delors’ solution is the managerial compromise that defines the EU at its best and worst: keep the door open, keep the rules flexible, and let integration proceed by coalition. It’s an argument for Europe as a system that advances not through grand declarations, but through carefully designed asymmetry.