Maurice Hayes (Independent)

I thank the President for his kind remarks about the forum and about me. The forum was set up to communicate about Europe and to engage the citizens. The President's personality and profession are a good example of how that can be done. He brought a sense of vision to the issue today and he took Europe away from a collection of directives and orders and gave us a feel for the philosophical and historical basis of the enterprise, which is what the citizens need.

The President spoke about the Mediterranean grouping. How does he envisage the participation of Israel and Palestine in that? That is a place on which Europe should concentrate. If that boil could be lanced, it would reduce the political fever in that part of the world.

I was very interested in the President's thoughts about a type of digital volunteer core. Given that all the European countries are moving away from military service, young people need a right of passage to responsible citizenship. That is a wonderfully inventive and thoughtful way of doing it. Has the President thought about doing it on a national or European basis which would bring them further together? I thank the President for coming here today.