PANEUROPA PICNIC "Paneuropa is all of Europe"

Walburga Habsburg Douglas, Board member of Paneuropa Sweden Every year on August 19th, we commemorate the Paneuropa Picnic of August 19th, 1989 which was held 33 years ago. It happened when the Iron Curtain began to fall. On that day, 61 East Germans were able to flee from Hungary - where they were waiting in refugee camps for the famous hole in the Iron Curtain – via Austria to Western Germany. This event is closely linked to the Paneuropa Union considering we proclaimed since the Summer of 1989: "A barbed wire is not a border, Paneuropa is all of Europe!" This action was based on an idea of the then President of the International Pan-European Union, my father Otto von Habsburg, and was a further thoughtguiding principle to his work in the European Parliament. He said that the division of our continent into East and West is not a historical constant but can be overcome if only Europeans dare to think ahead. That was an idea not shared by many. The "Iron Curtain" was often mistaken for a historical untouchable reality. On August 18, courageous Austrian and Hungarian Paneuropeans organized a picnic at the border between Hungary and Austria near Fertöråkos in the Sopron Puszta. East Germans had waited there in refugee camps and finally were able to flee to West Germany via Austria. The picnic triggered the largest wave of refugees since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and it was the first step towards the liberation of East-Central Europe and the enlargement of the European Union. Now, 100 years since the founding of the Paneuropa Union, we can only affirm that it is evident that the name of our organization is linked to this event. Actually, we should now think about where another Paneuropean Picnic could be organized to speed up the unification of our continent and to convince all who are asking why we still need "Pan-Europe" claiming „you have achieved everything you set out to do“. The answer is: „Only when there is no need for more picnics, our work is finished“. Nowadays we would need a picnic in Ukraine and Georgia, the countries in need of EU protection. Such a picnic could be the starting signal.