Karl von Habsburg: EU is incomplete without Serbia

BELGRADE - Karl von Habsburg, grandson to the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Karl I, said in Belgrade Monday that the EU is incomplete without Serbia, stressing that no individual country or person can be blamed for World War One.

In a lecture he gave at Belgrade University Rectorate, organized by the European Wine Knights of Serbia, the imperial prince and archduke of Austria said that if one is trying to look to the future, one needs to consider the past as well, and it is impossible to say that a single country or personality was responsible for the outbreak of World War One.

Historically, it is wrong to think that a single country or personality can be blamed for the outbreak of the war. One needs to consider the overall situation, the alliances entered into at the time and the fact that a readiness for conflict was there in almost all European countries, said von Habsburg, who is also Pan-European Movement Austria president.

Pointing out that June 28 this year will mark 100 years since the outbreak of the World War, and that it is observed on that date because of the 1914 incident in Sarajevo, Karl von Habsburg added that he is confident that, even if there was no assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914, the war would have begun a few weeks later, at some other place in Europe.

He said that the First and Second World Wars must be seen as a single whole, a single long war, adding that efforts undertaken after it, leading to the creation of the EU, have led to the longest period of peace on the Old Continent.

Therefore, the archduke said, efforts should not be focused on economic goals alone. Rather, the main goal should be peace, and that it is a priority for the EU.

The...