Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden returned to Harvard University on Friday to deliver a speech at the Kennedy School of Government, where he once studied, using the occasion to argue against what he described as a “persistent narrative of European decline”.
In his speech, Frieden rejected the idea of a continent stuck in the past, telling the audience that “crisis has never been Europe’s weakness. It has been its engine.”
Come and see
Luc Frieden
Luxembourg Prime Minister
Frieden pointed to previous periods of crisis in Europe, arguing that they had led to concrete outcomes, including the creation of the single market and the introduction of the euro.
Speaking at a US campus at a time of renewed tension in transatlantic relations, Frieden said Europe was facing a “structural rupture” in its long-standing partnership with the United States, noting that the post-war model of transatlantic relations was under strain.
However, he said, this did not mark the end of European cooperation with the US, but required Europe to assume greater responsibility while remaining committed to shared democratic principles.
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A significant part of the speech focused on European values, particularly freedom of expression. Frieden said freedom was protected in Europe but not without limits, arguing that it cannot be used to undermine the dignity or rights of others. This approach, he said, was rooted in Europe’s historical experience of extremism and exclusion.
The location of this speech, Harvard, has been a frequent target of criticism from former US president Donald Trump, who has accused elite universities of ideological bias and cultural elitism. Against that backdrop, Frieden stressed the importance of universities as spaces where research and debate can take place “without political interference or ideological constraint.”
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Frieden also outlined three strategic priorities for the European Union: economic competitiveness, energy sovereignty and defence.
On security, he called for a broad discussion on Europe’s future role within Nato and said that the idea of a European army should not be dismissed outright, even if it was not a short-term objective.
He closed the speech with a refrain used throughout his remarks, inviting critics of Europe not to debate its merits in theory but to judge it in practice. “Come and see,” he said.