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Mr. Chairman,
Mr. Prime Minister,
Honourable Members of the Seimas
First of all, I would like to thank the Seimas, its Chairman and the new Chairman of the European Affairs Committee for convening this discussion. This discussion is indispensable, timely and important. In my opinion, such discussions should be held at least once in a parliamentary session - especially taking into account the perspective of the following 12 months.I would also like to thank repeatedly the European Affairs Committee for its continuous attention to the issues of integration and support to the Government.Last Saturday, the Lithuanian delegation, headed by the President of Lithuania, attended the European Council meeting in Laeken, which demonstrated how manifold and dynamic the European Union is. Its agenda is complex, and the tasks - ambitious. For example, common European currency was merely an illusion 10 years ago. Now it is the reality. In 12 days euros will "burden" pockets of the Europeans.Another project of the European integration, which arose after the fall of the Berlin Wall, is the EU enlargement. Its challenges and scope raise expectations and emotions both in the East and West of Europe, especially having in mind that the enlargement is an irreversible process, which is to be measured not in years, but in months.Clear agenda of the enlargement for the next year confirms that. The European Union will seek to complete the accession negotiations with well-prepared aspirant countries at the Copenhagen European Council meeting in December 2002. Political decisions on which candidate countries will complete the negotiations can already be made during the informal Summit in Brussels on October 21. The period between Brussels and Copenhagen summits could be used to find final decisions and to draft the Accession Treaty in order to initial it in Copenhagen. The European Commission is asked to prepare regular reports one month earlier than usual - in the middle of October. It is expected that these reports will include decisions concerning the completion of negotiations. This means, that the Commission will evaluate our progress for the last time in June or July. Therefore, I agree with the proposal of the Chairman of the Seimas and welcome the incitement of the parliamentary resolution to concentrate all our efforts on the so-called integration laws. Thus the timetable is known. When asked about the number of new members to be taken in, the European Commission answers - "up to ten". I am sure, that they are thinking about ten countries, with Lithuania among them. The Commission takes into account two main arguments: the course of accession negotiations and financial abilities of the EU to include so many new members. In Laeken, leaders of the EU member states agreed with such estimation of the Commission and named those ten countries. But the Council emphasised indispensable condition for the realisation of such scenario, which was indicated by the Commission itself: the current pace of negotiations with candidates and the pace of reforms in those countries must be maintained.It is reasonable that the EU member states need more evidence because the negotiations have not been concluded yet, and the most difficult chapters remain to be negotiated. Dear colleagues,Lithuania as well as other Baltic States has firmly occupied a position among the candidate countries, which have achieved excellent results in the negotiations and have a real perspective to conclude the negotiations next year. Therefore, we must focus on the quality of the decisions achieved. The quality of any decision lies not only in the possibilities to implement it technically. It equally matters whether the decision is acceptable to the society and main interest groups. The negotiations were launched and are being conducted regarding a basic requirement: the majority of the Lithuanian population must support the conditions of the EU membership. And if there are any doubts about this support, we must discuss it among ourselves; we can discuss it with the EU institutions as well. These negotiations - the same as all the complex negotiations - are based on a principle that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. At the moment negotiating chapters were closed not finally, but provisionally. They can be re-opened. To my mind, we are free to look back and evaluate the agreements reached. However, we must maintain a strong sense of responsibility! The responsibility for every decision is growing.We may repeatedly revise, for example, our financial plans in the field of environmental protection. We may discuss the free movement of capital, the liberalisation of land market and the protection of the interests of Lithuanian citizens; we can even "re-open" one or another chapter. However, when proposing a step like this we must know the means to close these chapters afterwards!I understand that the Government has taken a right decision [on the permission to sell agricultural land to foreigners] and, quoting the Prime Minister, it is beneficial for the perspective of Lithuanian economy and agriculture. We need it much more than the European Union. In order to be rational we must focus on the decisions that are the most important to Lithuania and will have to be taken next year. These issues are related to the payments from the EU funds. They can be solved. These issues are twofold - the so-called "horizontal", typical to all candidates, and specific, applicable to Lithuania only. Agriculture, structural funds or regional policy and the formation of the EU budget fall into the first category of "horizontal" chapters. The time has come to demystify some subjects: the European Union has already stated that it will be negotiating within the limits of the budget, which has been agreed upon in Berlin in 1999 and which had been calculated until 2007. In principle, the size of the "cake" allocated for the enlargement is clear; it has to be properly portioned to the new members in such a way that Lithuania would acquire every euro potentially belonging to it. I touched upon this at our ambassadors' meeting - we are going to concentrate all our diplomatic efforts on this issue. I think, we will avoid mistakes here. But there is one thing that we should never forget - it is our capacity to master these funds. Perhaps, it is even more important than absolute figures. The European Commission is the one that is persistently reminding us about the importance of administrative capacities. Anyone, who had a chance to deal with the projects of EU funds, knows it. [E.g. it took 6 years for Portugal to start fully mastering structural aid.] Thus, our expectations on these issues have to be grounded in order not to be disappointed, astonished or surprised later. The same could be applied to one of the most specific issues of our negotiations - Ignalina nuclear power plant. It will be very complicated and perhaps the most complicated issue from the point of view of the negotiations. As the Prime Minister indicated, we were making a considerable effort and we were successful in winning the acknowledgement of the EU states that Ignalina nuclear power plant remained a common European issue - not solely Lithuania's. Responsibility, including financing, should be shared. Two important Members of the Commission, Günter Verheugen, in charge of the enlargement, and Michel Barnier, in charge of structural funds, also share the same opinion. It is tactically important to find the earliest possible principal decision on the issue together with the European Commission (which currently possesses a full mandate from the European capitals). Revision of the National Energy Strategy should be planned without any delay so that we could find a proper balance between the terms of the closure of Ignalina nuclear power plant and financial as well as other conditions of the EU membership. Interfractional Working Group of the Seimas plays an important role here. On the other hand, we have to discuss the legal side of these issues comprehensively. Now, I will briefly discuss the issue of the Kaliningrad Region of the Russian Federation in terms of the accession negotiations. On the agenda of the negotiations we have the issue concerning harmonisation of the Lithuanian and the EU's visa policies, it also concerns Kaliningrad, as well as Belarus and the Ukraine. Lithuania will urgently have to expand its consular service in these states in order to be able to represent interests of Lithuanian citizens and in order to guarantee good relations with its neighbours. In order to achieve these goals, we have to be very active in Brussels. Lithuania has to be properly represented there. I wish that we agreed upon the need for a "physical" consolidation in Brussels. It is necessary and it includes personnel as well as financial investments, such as premises for the permanent mission of Lithuania to the European Communities. It seems odd to me, when I hear doubts about the neccesity of the investments, which have already been late for two years.I would like to attract the attention of the honourable members of the Seimas that despite the growth of gross national product (GNP) and the increasing tasks of foreign policy, the decrease of its budgetary share lasts for several years in succession. Meanwhile, on our agenda we also have other necessary tasks, such as the embassy in Berlin or the above-mentioned expansion of the consular service. Quite often, when speaking about the success of the European Union, we refer to the example of Ireland. However, we are not able to open an embassy in that country for three years. We plan to present Lithuania in the EU, but each year we are forced to do it with decreasing funds. This Monday, while addressing our ambassadors the President of the Republic turned his attention to these problems. Along with your understanding, honourable members of the Seimas, we also need your active support. Honourable members,The second important issue is the discussion on the future of the EU that was formally opened in Laeken. The construction of Europe is a continuous political process, which was neither started yesterday nor will end tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. The framework of this stage is Intergovernmental Conference in 2004, and a new method - the so-called Convention - devoted to its preparation. It is the Intergovernmental Conference which will make decisions on constitutional development of the EU, but alternative decisions adopted by the Convention and the debates themselves will influence the decisions of Governments. The Laeken declaration raised the questions of the highest political rank, which are related to the constitutional structure and the political system of the EU. In other words, we speak about our attempts to achieve the EU of another quality. The method and participants of the debates are important. The aspirant states will participate in the proccedings of the Convention at the same format as the current member states. At the Convention we will take an advantage of the decisions that could be the most favourable to us. We also will try to influence agreements or certain alternatives depending on our capacities and conditions. In the beginning of the next year Lithuania has to form a delegation, which is to undertake its work in the Convention in March. Before that we should harmonise our own positions. I would like to present the main principles which, in my opinion, Lithuania should stick to at the debates on the future of the EU.Firstly, without a successful enlargement there could be no successful future of the EU. Secondly, the main principle of the goals of the EU should be evolution but not revolution.Thirdly, the development of the EU institutions should be gradual. In my opinion, the development of the "Community" method is in Lithuania's interest, as it provides equal rules of the "game" for all the states. As I see it, strong institutions of the EU guarantee better protection of the interests of smaller states.Fourthly, the applied rules of closer co-operation are sufficient. The closer co-operation between states must be an instrument for integration, and not for isolation. Fifthly, the principle of solidarity should be maintained within the enlarged EU as well. For example, there should be no different regional policies - one for current, and another for the new member states. We have to be careful in evaluating ideas on "re-nationalisation" of one or another common policy.Let it be the primary principles. I would like to recommend that inspiration for the next step of position preparations and the mandate for proceedings in the Convention would come from the discussions in Lithuania. I agree with the initiative of the President, expressed a few weeks ago, to hold a broader forum in order to consider reflections and expectations of various groups of our society next year. This could be a continuous regular process, parallel to the Convention.Mr. Chairman,Honourable members of Seimas,Lithuania has an opportunity to take part in a unique process of welfare creation throughout the European continent. Our duty is to take this opportunity. When we speak about the future of Europe, we speak about the future of Lithuania. We speak about the success of Lithuania, which has no alternatives.Thank you for your attention.