There is no finer example of the numerous threads that form the very fabric of European culture. This weave, this “indestructible monument” made of words, spanning time and space, from Simonides to du Bellay and Shakespeare, is Europe’s cultural unity!
The writer Cees Nooteboom in “De ontvoering van Europa” [The Abduction of Europe] gives his personal interpretation of Europe’s cultural unity and diversity: “If I am European – and I hope I am starting to get there after almost 60 years of determined effort – this surely means that Europe’s multiculturalism profoundly influences my Dutch identity”. Isn’t this what being European is all about?