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“There will never again be war in Europe”
Dublin, Ireland - THE revolution that began with the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989 reached its culmination at midnight on Friday as the European Union welcomed 10 new members – including eight former Soviet Bloc countries.
To the strains of Beethoven's Ode To Joy, a tearful Helmut Kohl, the former German chancellor – regarded as one of the architects of the modern EU – told jubilant crowds at Zittau on the border of Germany and the Czech Republic: "There will never again be war in Europe."
In city squares across the member countries, millions celebrated what is widely seen as the final act in the Cold War and the beginning of a new era of co-operation and prosperity.