Pierre Werner was one of the rare politicians to be associated with all the major milestones in the building of a united Europe, from the 1950 Schuman Plan to the Fontainebleau European Council in 1984. He placed the European integration process at the centre of Luxembourg domestic policy, convinced of the need to preserve national identity and sovereignty by adopting an international outlook. Determined to set the country on a forward-looking path, he pursued a pragmatic yet ambitious approach to economic diversification, focusing in particular on consolidating the international financial centre from the 1960s onwards, nurturing the idea for a national shipping flag, developing the audiovisual sector and launching the innovative satellite project ; IECS Sibiu 2019