 Starting with the gentleman to my left, who of course is familiar to many of you, has helped many, many important positions, including as the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs at the State Department. He also served as Ambassador to Germany during a very critical time, namely from 1985 to 1989, and currently he's the Managing Director of McLarty Associates, based in Washington. The sea, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Richard Byrds. Richard, that's somebody who's American obviously, but as I said, you served in Germany as Ambassador, worked on the EU quite a bit. We're very curious to hear about your opening statements, to hear your take right now on the current state of the European Union. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to be very brief, make a few hopefully provocative points to get a debate, a discussion going with this panel and with the audience, and I think I will begin by reminding some of you who would at least read the Wall Street Journal of a column that showed up after a visit by Donald Trump to Europe last summer. It was written by H.R. McMaster, the President's National Security Advisor, and Gary Cohn, who chairs something called the National Economic Council. And the title of the article was America First Does Not Mean America Alone. And I'm not sure whether or not I agree with that, but I do think that America first perhaps means Europe alone. I think we are going through a really crucial and historical change in which the message from Washington to Europe and the EU is, now, you are on your own. If you think back, both through the immediate postwar period, the Cold War period and the aftermath of the Cold War, the one kind of stabilizing influence in international politics was the U.S.-European relationship. I think that has changed and has probably changed for good. If you think back on, example, the kind of special relationships not only between the United States and Britain, but the remarkable relationships that go back to the 1950s between, say, Eisenhower and Conrad Adenauer, between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, between, say, Tony Blair, his relationships both with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and the relationships more recently between leaders like Angela Merkel and Barack Obama, there is no such relationship now between any major European leader with Donald Trump. And I think that as American policy becomes less focused on values, Western values and shared values, and more on transactionalism, you see an emphasis in American policy on India, China, East Asia, South Asia, and not the European-American relationship. So this puts the Europeans and the EU in particular, in my view, in a difficult position. On the one hand, it's kind of a scary world for the Europeans out there without the United States as a partner, but on the other hand, it can also be a force for change in Europe, an invigorating period for Europe to take on new responsibilities and new leadership. But that fundamental shift away from the transatlantic relationship being the centerpiece of international relations is something I think that will pose real pressures and challenges for not only Brussels and the Brussels-based institutions, but the major European players. Point two, that means in my view that Europe has to strengthen itself. We all recognize the importance of coming to grips with the economic challenges of dealing with fixing the European monetary system, the finding a way of dealing with some persistent European issues like growth, and I think some progress has been made in those areas, but the one thing I would emphasize briefly this morning is the importance of strengthening and building the European defense pillar. It was interesting to me that when Trump was in Europe last summer, the big debate was, well, will the Europeans agree to the 2% increase in defense? That to me is the wrong way to cast the issue. Europeans shouldn't think about defense spending as a way of placating the Americans. The Europeans need to think about defense spending and strengthening their defense to play a bigger role in international politics. I think there is some consensus beginning to emerge along those lines, and I think I would only as an American applaud an effort to strengthen European security and defense. Third point, Europe needs a strategy, a common strategy for regulating and protecting its borders. I'm not talking here about a Trumpian wall through Europe, but I am talking about the need to have a European-wide immigration strategy. One which is not based or implemented on a national basis, but on an EU basis. I think more has to be done in this area. The problem of immigration is loomed large recently, particularly in places like Eastern Europe, and only, it seems to me, a European-wide approach to dealing with controlling the border and protecting the border is the solution. My penultimate point has to do with the problems, if I can put it in those terms, of dealing with, and I know we have a Polish representative on our panel, but I think we've got to do something, or Europe needs to do something, about the unruly Eastern Europeans. Earlier I'm not just pointing at Poland, I'm pointing of course at Hungary, pointing at some other newer members of the EU in the East, but some kind of agreement needs to be reached in Brussels to find a way of, if I can use this word, demonstrating that there are costs associated with not living up to the standards and rules of the European Union, because if the EU fails to do this, then I think it faces potential disintegration. And I will finish my comment by saying what I am basically an optimist about Europe and the reason I am an optimist is for three reasons. First of all, I'm very pleased to see the results of the recent German elections. I'm relieved that even though there are tough coalition discussions going on in Berlin today, that Angela Merkel has been returned to power. She has played a very important leadership role, and that leads to the second aspect, which is the results of elections in France. The Germans now potentially have, they're a French partner, which could create a revitalized Franco-German alliance within the EU, which has always historically been, in my view, the vital engine of growth and modernity in Europe. And that leads, finally, to my third point, is with all the debate and discussion, and I know my friend Steve will address this in more detail, but with all the debate and discussion with London about how Brexit is going to proceed, how the British are or are not going to be able to successfully negotiate leaving the EU, I secretly believe that Britain in the end will not leave Europe. Well, thank you, Richard. You heard it, your first breaking news, please. Breaking news coming out of Marrakesh, Brexit no longer. We are, Great Britain is not leaving the EU. You heard it, your first on the stage. Richard, many, many thanks for your opening remarks, which gave us a lot of food for thoughts, saying that the special relationship between the US and you will not exist, as it used to be, perhaps an opportunity for Europe to take this opportunity to become more independent and grow up, if you will, particularly on the security front. And as far as Eastern Europe, we will have Bogdan Klick later on, who will get an opportunity, of course, to respond what was being said.