Rede: Call to Action

Ladies and Gentlemen, 
dear friends of Alpbach,
and again – a special welcome to all of our scholarship holders in the room,

in a few minutes, the European Forum Alpbach 2026 comes to an end.

And that is exactly when the work begins.

Since 1945, this Forum has been about four things: 
space, time, dialogue, and results.

In the early years, the Forum even ended with an "Alpbach Resolution". 
I brought one with me.

This is the resolution of 1947. 
A single A4 page. 
Four demands.

The participants back then asked for a European scholarship fund. 
For free train travel, so that students could meet across borders. 
For more cooperation between European universities.
And for common standards for university degrees.

Four short points, after more than two weeks of intensive exchange.

Read them today, and you see something remarkable: 
they were describing Erasmus, 40 years before it existed.

This year, for the first time in decades, 
we tried to pick up that tradition again.

But the world has become more complex.

In our first week alone, in the EFA Academy, 
we had ten labs, 
and even more studios and seminars.

Ideas were born everywhere.
Demands were discussed. 
And much of it was deepened during the Conference Days.

Think of just one session from these days.

One discussion. One fireside chat. One hike. 
From each of them you could easily take four or five points.

The sum of all these dialogues do not fit on a single page.

So today we do not have one Alpbach Resolution.

Today we hopefully have 4,600 personal ones.

Two or three concrete points that each of our participants take home and 
put into practice in their own field.

Some of them are here in this room. 
You can see them around and behind me.

They are a small sample of what you brought, 
what you contributed, 
and what should now help make tomorrow a little better, 
more peaceful, 
more sustainable, 
more innovative, and 
more friendly than today.

Thank you for that commitment. 
Here, and above all in the months to come.

We also made a short manifesto, for the first time in decades, 
on the areas that matter most to us as EFA.

It is a framework. 
Everyone will receive a copy to take home.

And in the coming weeks we will publish much more: 
the results from our labs, 
from the sessions of our partners,
and from our reporting partners.

Let me add something personal in the end.

In my opening speech I said: 
in Alpbach we want to get to know each other.
To talk with each other. 
And to learn from each other.

I have to tell you: 
I have rarely learned so much in so few days.

I also said that 
a democracy stays strong as long as it can keep one promise: 
that tomorrow can be better than today.

These days have made me more confident that we can keep that promise.

Not because the problems got smaller. 
But because I saw how many people here are willing to do the work.

So here is my own personal Alpbach resolution:
I will keep fighting for the completion of our Single Market.
It is the strongest instrument to strenghten our union.

And it is the clearest proof of our motto:

Europe wins by working together.

Thank you for your time, for your ideas, and for your commitment.

Safe travels home. 
And see you in Alpbach in 2027.