European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker hailed US president George H.W. Bush on Saturday for the part he played in bringing unity and peace to Europe after the Cold War.
‘I will never forget the role he played in making Europe a safer and more united place following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain,’ Juncker said of Bush, who died on Friday aged 94.
Bush's ‘calmness, leadership and close personal relationships with (German chancellor) Helmut Kohl and (Soviet Russian leader) Mikhail Gorbachev were decisive in restoring peace and freedom back to so many people across our continent,’ the former Luxembourg prime minister added.
‘We Europeans will forever remember this,’ Juncker said.
European Parliament president Antonio Tajani in a tweet said that ‘Europe has lost a champion of its freedom and unity during the Cold War.’