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Lucerne, 18 October, 2004 New Political Horizons in Larger Europe Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my great pleasure to be here today and to share with you some ideas and thoughts on a Larger Europe.

My special thanks go to the organizers of this event – Europe Forum Lucerne.

Also, I am pleased to welcome Commissioner Guenther Verheugen at this conference. We know Guenther as a great statesman and an outstanding personality, who played a crucial role in the EU enlargement process. I must say that we will surely miss his energetic leadership in the capacity of the Enlargement Commissioner, but, altogether, we will gain in having strong Vice-President of the Commission.

This conference comes at a time when Europe is testing its new horizons. A few years ago for Lithuania and for the other candidate countries the European Union was also just a horizon. Yet, this horizon has turned out to be a well-defined perspective. Today we speak of a Larger Europe, which represents the success and the pervasiveness of European integration.

The largest ever enlargement of the Union is over. So, does this issue maintain its relevance for our discussions? Indeed it does. Not only because the ever-closer Union must ensure itself a stable and secure neighbourhood, but also because without this perspective, the EU would lose its sense of mission and purpose.

The Constitution, agreed recently, lays down a firm institutional framework, which provides political space for implementing the vision of a broader Europe. But enlargement remains a test of Union’s ability to meet challenges that the biggest neighbourhood brings.

Enlargement is, first and foremost, about bringing security and stability, fostering economic growth, maintaining social policies and cultural identities. Bringing security and prosperity to the region and beyond was one of the main arguments used by Lithuania and other countries in their accession campaign. This goal remains unchanged.

But on the other hand, expanding the zone of stability and democracy has become a prerequisite for the aspirations of the EU to become a global power. The model of inter-state cooperation and eventual integration is the most valuable asset offered by the EU for the neighbouring nations.

We know from our own experience that the prospect of membership and eventual accession talks serve as a principal driving force of a democratic change and market transformation. It was much easier for our leaders to adopt sometimes painful decisions in the light of a clear prospect of membership.

A few weeks ago, the Commission welcomed the progress of Bulgaria and Romania towards full-fledged membership and once more noted Croatia’s status as a candidate. The other South-Eastern European countries are in the process of stabilization and association with the EU, which also gives a clear perspective of their future membership in the Union.

Even countries like Switzerland are well connected with the EU by a range of various agreements, which provides them all benefits of EU cooperation short of political membership.

This December we will approach a more difficult issue of EU relations with Turkey. The Commission has already signalled its positive evaluation of Turkey’s progress towards fulfilling membership criteria. Now it is up to the EU political leaders to decide whether accession negotiations shall be started.

In principle, Lithuania supports the opening of the accession negotiations with Turkey. Due to its geopolitical location, Turkey is a significant political, economic and cultural partner. Taking into consideration the role Turkey plays both in Europe and in Asia, there is no doubt that membership of Turkey in the EU would bring more stability to the region, the strategic importance of which has grown after September 11.

In our opinion the Turkish membership will eventually increase the EU’s political profile and engagement in the Middle East, South Caucasus and the larger Black Sea region. In economic and cultural terms, it also offers a shortcut to a more influential role on a global scale. Having Turkey onboard, the European Union is likely to become a leading economic, multicultural, and multireligious power.

Today Turkey demonstrates a remarkable progress towards implementation of the Copenhagen criteria. If Turkey is serious about its European direction, it should further promote its current political reforms and implement them more vigorously in practice.

It is truly important to acknowledge that the question of Turkey’s membership in the EU is also about the opening of the European perspective to the countries currently outside the remit of the EU. Turkey’s EU accession negotiations would unavoidably set a high pattern. It would persuade Ukraine, Moldova, and the South Caucasus moving towards Europe. And in our view, there is no other way to achieve it but to offer these countries a full-fledged membership.

The European perspective should also be open to Belarus if democratic changes take place there. And for that matter, too, we cannot exclude the possibility of Russia’s hypothetical membership.

It might sound scaring today. And we understand that. However, we must continuously challenge these new horizons to keep the Union itself on the move. The last enlargement has encouraged the development of the Constitutional Treaty for Europe. Now I try to imagine how the EU membership of, say, Ukraine would affect further constitutional development of the EU.

The idea of EU accession has brought reconciliation to Central and Eastern Europe and created an ever-stronger spirit of cooperation in this region. This is what the European Union can share with the Black Sea region as well. We must encourage the political will of the Black Sea states and support their attempts to reform themselves. At the time being, I do not see any other instrument to encourage reforms as powerful as the path of integration.

The European Neighbourhood Policy might become a working instrument for integration, if a country concerned makes that choice. And that’s its added value. Even if it is yet too early to predict at this stage whether the Black Sea countries will be able to use the opportunities foreseen by the Article 49 of the Treaty on the European Union, that is, to become members of the Union, we still see the need to keep our minds open. We should not set the political limits of the Union beforehand, and should not close the doors for the countries, such as Ukraine and Moldova, that have repeatedly expressed their desire to join the EU.

Independent, democratic, sovereign and economically strong Ukraine is Europe’s vital interest. European democracies should contribute to the strengthening of democratic processes in Ukraine and support the strategic Euro-Atlantic choice of this country. We must continue our policies of openness and support even though the recent developments in Ukraine are rather disappointing.

Europe should think wider. It is necessary to see Ukraine in a broader context of EU long-term development, especially after South Eastern Europe, including Turkey, becomes part of the EU.

Moldova’s aspirations to get closer to the EU also provide an opportunity for the Union to play a more influential role in Moldova’s developments and especially in the settlement of the Transnistria crisis.

It is crucial to engage Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia in the European Neighbourhood Policy as well. The very process already facilitates good neighbourly relations and promotion of regional contacts, in particular people-to-people contacts, cross-border cooperation and joint environment protection measures among these countries.

We believe that an active involvement of the European Union and the United States in the search for resolution of Georgian internal conflicts would help to balance existing formats and mechanisms of conflict resolution, to preserve Georgia’s territorial integrity.

Belarus is still far away from being able to receive full benefits of the European Neighbourhood Policy. At the same time, Belarus should not be excluded from the ongoing discussions. Several Member States have proposed unilateral Action Plan “light” for Belarus. Aiming to increase the EU’s visibility in Belarus, this plan could serve as a message from the EU to the Belarusian society that there is an alternative to the existing situation in the EU-Belarus relations.


Ladies and gentlemen,

Obviously, the enlargement issue is not yet completely solved. The future EU enlargement is no doubt yet another test of our commitment to common European values. Our message to the potential EU entrants should be simple and clear – if you commit, you will succeed. It is of vital importance that all future candidate states join the Union well prepared, and they meet the established political, economical and other criteria. On our part, we should do our homework – to develop new imaginative ways of building a Larger Europe. We must cross this new horizon with an idea and a plan of how we want to live in the future.

Thank you.