Francisco Lucas Pires was a true Christian-democrat and played an important role in European integration. I met him when he was a young party leader and already at that time, his vigorous support for European integration impressed me.

After his homeland Portugal joined the European Union, he greatly influenced the path towards European integration in his work in the European Parliament. His legacy there shows that working for Europe was more than just of cursory interest to him, it was the considered choice. Francisco Lucas Pires lived by example, promoting the ideal of understanding between nations.

The memory I have of Francisco Lucas Pires is that he was an extraordinary political personality.

Francisco Lucas Pires, Professor at the Faculty of Law of the Coimbra University, was a constitutionalist who actively contributed in the European Parliament to the debate on the development of the European Union.

Professor Francisco Lucas Pires was one of the most compassionate political personalities, with whom I had the honour of working. In the European Parliament he had many friends and admirers of his political talent, knowledge and courtesy that was always compatible with his courage to defend his ideals.

I had the opportunity to work with him in the preparation of the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties, and I appreciated his rigour and intellectual depth as a professor and his political clairvoyance as a humanist.

As Vice-President of the European Parliament, he had the opportunity to serve this institution and through this position work for European unification and the active inclusion of Portugal in the European Union. My emotional ties with Portugal were enriched with Francisco Lucas Pires.

Francisco Lucas Pires was an exemplary Member of the European Parliament. A thorough European, he worked passionately throughout his mandate towards European integration, which marked so positively the last twelve years of our political life. He was an important protagonist on the European political stage, at the forefront in the European Parliament, as its Vice-President, and in the European People's Party, where he was always one of the most brilliant and respected personalities.

Professor of the prestigious University of Coimbra, he was both an analytical thinker, and an exceptional orator.