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UNITING EUROPE - HOPES AND FEARS

Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Post-war European unification is often measured by decades featuring fundamental shifts. Ten years is an eye-blink in the European history. And still the past ten years were special. For Lithuania as well as other Baltic states, it was exactly ten years ago that they won international recognition. They began - once again - their lives as a part of the community of sovereign states. They became participants of the grand project of European re-unification. The decade for my country was full of hopes and fears - some individual to us, others common to all central and Western Europe; some of a totally different kind that we have today and some that we still have today.Ten years ago our foreign policy had specific tasks. We had to establish diplomatic relations with other countries; liberate our territory from the Soviet Army; open our society and markets. A specific - and exemplary challenge - was our relations with Poland. It was not so long ago that they were rather strained and reaching critical points. In those days, very few could imagine that in several years Lithuania and Poland would become strategic partners coping with challenges of a totally different kind such as finding time and manpower to implement the numerous initiatives and ideas that only two very friendly nations can generate together. Polish-Lithuanian cooperation should become a building block in the entire European construction through specific projects such electricity bridge, [energy rings] or facilitating transport and transit for carriers. With all the dramatic developments and achievements of the past decade, uniting Europe remains a goal to be fulfilled. Reaching it is a unifying factor in itself. The final goal is clear - Western Europe and Central Europe must become nothing more than geographical notions. There must be only one political and economic Europe. One European civilization. Out of all projects that share this objective, enlargement of the European Union is central. It is indeed, as professor R.Prodi says, the biggest political project in the world ever in history. In the candidate countries, resentments about the long way to EU membership are still present. Unrealistic expectations have lead to certain scepticism that expanding European Union is just a miracle. I am a sttrong believer that now it is for real. Are not we sometimes frightened that something that ten years ago seemed only a nice dream is a reality now? Are we not just waking up to this reality? If there is any scepticism about the enlargement it is only because of miscommunication with our citizens. European leaders pledged in Gothenburg that enlargement is irreversible. Accession negotiations is the best testimony that the project is well underway. There is a calendar for it - time is set, clock is ticking. All right conditions that, in 2004, the European Union will grow and that we shall be in it are there. People in the candidate countries begin to feel that European Union will soon become their home. This home is to be renovated, so they also start to think about the kind of home they want to live in. Visions of the Union the candidates want originate in their experience of the accession negotiations. The terms of membership that are to be negotiated by the end of the next year, will determine whether the European Union will be hospitable and comfortable to the new comers. There are still a number of unknowns. First, it is yet unknown what objectives and common policies will be vested in the future European Union. Second, the institutional arrangements that will serve those policies are yet to emerge. And last but not least - how it is all to be financed. Through the years of its existence, the European Union has proven that the objectives and the policies of the founders of EC set forth in fifties and sixties - the security of the continent and the welfare of its citizens - are all alive. The principle of subsidiarity is as relevant as ever. At the turn of the centuries, it is still true that the most effective decisions are made at the level (regional, national or Union) which serves implementation and is closest to the citizens. Common EU policies - single market, free movement of goods, services, capital and persons and single currency have also proven their worth. Their evolution should continue together with social protection and infrastructure of economics such as energy, transport or environment. Globalisation and search for the global role of the Union has opened new avenues for common policies such as common EU foreign and security policy, justice and home affairs. EU should seek to develop a strong identity in the global politics, while the third pillar should gradually evolve from intergovernmental cooperation into a complex of community policies. In relation to this, EU's global role will depend on how successfully it acts in its immediate eastern neighbourhood. Eastern vector is the most important in the EU's external policies. The next few years will be fundamental. The two enlargements - EU and NATO - will extend the zone of stability, democracy, and prosperity and willmark a watershed in the history of our Continent When European Union's borders move to the east they will extend EU-Russian border and will establish new contacts with Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. Russia will continue being our largest and most important neighbour. We cannot imagine the future of Europe being shaped without this great country, Russia. But it is up to Russia itself to decide to what extent it wants to be part of the integration processes. Nobody can isolate Russia, but for Russia itself. Lithuania, together with and Poland, have special interest that EU policies towards Russia and especially Kaliningrad are right and best for all. Despite our common efforts, the potential of Kaliningrad is still not utilised. The degree of region's openness to regional cooperation is insufficient. I can assure that when Lithuania is a member of the European Union, we shall do everything in our ability to make sure that Lithuanian border, although fully protected and controlled, is not a barrier isolating our neighbours who are not members of the EU. Likewise, European Union will need to keep Ukraine in the European orbit. I cannot imagine future of Ukraine remote from European integration processes. Putting Belarus in that same orbit is also an outstanding challnge. Here I see a special role for Lithuania as a future member of the EU. Among the most important is the question of how the founding principle of solidarity will be applied in an enlarged Union. The cohesion and structural policies allowed Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece to perform miracles of growth. These scenarios can be repeated on a larger scale in the East. It will be a costly venture at the start but a manifold pay-off in the future. Enlargement is an investment. By enlarging the Union we invest into stability and prosperity - something than is not easily measured by sheer numbers. Unification and cohesion will require generosity from the current member-states and responsibility from the future members. Solidarity must be genuine. There should be no two different regional policies - one, more generous, for the old member states and the other for the new ones. If anything, it is the newcomers whoo will be in a greater need of assistance. With their specific problems that can only be solved with the help of more affluent partners, it would only be logical to rethink the 4 percent limit of the GDP for the assistance from EU funds. If maintained, this threshold would result in a situation where the more you need the less you get. This also goes for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). We have tough negotiations ahead. But we already know that the outcome must in no way be discriminatory to the disadvantage of those who are already in a weaker position and for whom agriculture is, in addition, socially sensitive. We could anticipate that CAP needs a revision. But in any case, support for rural development has to be retained. CAP and regional policy, based on non-discrimination and solidarity, will help to do away with the differences between the old and the new member states - an ultimate goal of the cohesion and the European integration.Secondly, European institutions are a derivation of the objectives. There is hardly a need for a "revolution" in the way the Council, Parliament, Commission and other institutions interact. The institutions have to evolve gradually, the same way as the objectives of the EU are evolving - but that does not mean that there should be no change.I am convinced that it is in everyone's - and especially the candidate countries' interest that the Community method is preserved and further developed. Strong institutions guarantee a fair game. They underlie the cohesion of the Union and have so far been the main methodological "engine" and the key for success of European integration. They made the EU what it is today: a Union that accommodates the big and protects the small. We need a safeguard that this development does not break loose and falls out off our hands. Exclusive clubs or centres or cores or nuclei threaten solidarity and thus the grand idea of European re-unification. The worst that could happen is fracturing Europe into pieces. This may be so if the EU has two standards, two policies, two governments, two budgets - one for the selected, rich and lucky, and the other for the rest. It would go even against semantic meaning of the Union. The word "Union" means "One". One for All [of us]. Thirdly, nothing happens without means and finances. The bigger European Union will need a bigger budget. Especially because when enlarged it will include new members with specific needs. Money is always among the most sensitive and sometimes even unpleasant subjects of disputes. Since the question about how the enlargement is financed is a fundamental issue and it will have to be addressed, it would also be sensible to look at the bigger picture and think whether it is a right moment to consider a gradual reform of the EU financing and budgeting. Since EU will become our home and our common "property" we have to know and have the right to say what kind of a home we would like to live in. Without participation of Europeans from East and West we cannot claim to build a Union that will be shared, effective, and legitimate. This is why the candidates that are aiming to join the EU in less than three years we have to take part in the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) of 2004 as participants with full and equal rights. In the meantime EU aspirants, and their neighbours, should stimulate thinking and understanding what future of Europe is in their best interest. Fora like today is a good occasion to exchange the best ideas. I would like to thank organizers for that and wish further fruitful discussions. I thank you.