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The paper argues that 1989 was the true year of Europe - not 1974. It was the year of Europe because or the emancipation it witnessed of the Old Continent, from both superpowers, and because, with the downfall of the Berlin Wall, it also witnessed the final ending of both the Second World War, and the Cold War. The year of Europe, but mainly the year of Germany; and the year of Europe, because the year of Germany. Arguing the futures of Germany and of Europe to be interwinned, this paper goes on to look at the revolutionary wave of events that has been sweeping through Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union – with Germany in the very eye of the storm- as representing a new opportunity for both Germany, and Europe: through federal unification. It was the year of Europe, because 1989 presented Germany and the Old Continent, with yet another chance for unity. But unity of a new type, one that goes beyond the traditional utopian approaches of both 1848 and 1948, as well as the state integration of the Treaties of Paris and of Rome, in the cal! for a Europe of the Regions, as the only organizational structure capable of fulfilling the very needs for self-regulation, self-realization – for autonomy – that have dictated the revolutionary character of 1989. Citizen, not state sovereignty, and the regional construction of Europe – as the single architectural structure capable of constituting an adequate forum for the realization of the ideals of freedom and autonomy that have grazed throughout Europe - such are the main thrusts of Mr. Pacheco Amaral's argument.