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Ecole des Sciences Politique de Paris, 7 October 2005

Distinguished Director,

Your Excellencies Ambassadors,

Dear faculty members and students,

Ladies and Gentlemen;

I am delighted with this opportunity to have a discussion in a company of young and vigorous French students and academicians. Let me express sincere gratitude to the distinguished Director Laurent Bigorn (LORAN BIGORN) for this possibility to share my thoughts about the future of Europe at the Science Po University, well known for its alumni of French and world-famous intellectuals, politicians and leaders. I am also delighted to introduce a European vision of Lithuania – a new member of the European family – here, in Paris, a city which has always been at the core of all European ideas and intrigues, in the positive sense of this word.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me start from the most important issue. After more than five decades of triumph of peace, well-being and human rights, Europe is faced with strategic choices.  

After accession of Romania and Bulgaria, the largest political, economic and commercial power of the continent will unite half a billion people who generate over one fifth of the global trade and nearly 30 per cent of the World GDP. It would be a unique club, representing nations at different stages of their economic and political development.

But will this club be strong, united and competitive? Will the EU complement its economic power with the adequate political weight in the world? Will we be able to advance with creation of democracy and security zones in the European neighborhood as in the recent phase of the EU enlargement?

My response to these questions is YES. But only if we succeed in developing a vision of the European future that is reasonable and acceptable to all citizens and member states of the EU.

A vision  capable of unifying the South and North of Europe, the new and old member states, those who support a liberal model of the market and those who safeguard achievements of their social models. That this vision is not Utopia is proved by the success of the European project to this very day. It was consistently consolidated by hard work of all member states and the Community method.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

You may ask what is the point of departure for creating a vision of European future? What are those steps that we have to take today, when the European boundaries are extending, and diversity of opinions over the future of the European project is getting even greater? How could we prevent political crisis and rebuild people’s confidence in the European future in the circumstances of suspended ratification of the Constitution, failing efforts to agree upon the EU budget and heated arguments over advantages of social and economic models?

To answer these questions, we, first and foremost, have no right to isolate ourselves from the global challenges.

We cannot afford putting national interests above interests and identity of the whole Europe in the shaping of which French political culture and social model played one of the most important roles. 

Second, we must be responsible not only to ourselves or people of our own countries. The vision that we are creating will equally affect all neighbors of the European Union – Turkey and nations of the Balkans and South Caucasus; the neighboring and reforms undergoing Ukraine; Russia, that is searching for its, hopefully, democratic and western ways.

A new role of Europe and strengthening of the EU foreign policy will no doubt affect strategic partnership between the EU and the USA, which has always been the core of modernization and democratization of the West.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I would like to offer four points of reference for the purpose of creating the future Europe and drawing its physical and “ideological” boundaries. These four points of reference are - open nature of the Community, its flexibility, dynamism and unity. Let me dwell upon each of them separately.

Openness to the world, new ideas and visions has always been the cornerstone feature of the European identity. Jean Monnet, Robert Schumann  and Jacques Delors – the founding fathers and architects of the EU’s free internal market – were well aware that openness enhances strength, encourages better understanding of one another and promotes not only competition, but also co-existence and listening to one another’s interests.

Tolerance, respect and support to an individual are the key features of the philosophic and cultural tradition of the Europe. In the light of the EU enlargement, these features, to my mind, translate into the advanced EU policy of openness towards countries which meet membership criteria. And it does not matter whether a ready-to-join candidate will be Croatia or Ukraine.

Does democracy and free market have limits? Does the idea of Europe have geographical boundaries?  If we can sincerely say that we are open – it has to be reflected in what we do and the attitudes that we take towards the EU neighbors and global trade. I believe that only the European Union that is open will be capable of becoming a source of well-being and security.

Only after we take on the challenges of global competition instead of shutting ourselves off by barriers and strict regulations, will we be able to create the basis for long-term growth of the whole Europe. Moreover, the growing trade with the rest of the world has to serve for us as a stimulus to improve and to benefit from what others produce better or at lower cost.

The second point of reference is flexibility.

Lithuanians have an old saying: “be as flexible as a reed and even the worst storm will not break you.”

Europe of twenty seven and more will bring together states of wide-ranging political and economic development level. We have to take this into account when planning the EU budget, modeling the EU regulatory environment, pursuing Lisbon strategy goals not only in words, but by action. We have to be flexible towards different social and economic (fiscal) models of the member states. Each and every of those models reflect national peculiarities and stand up to the fair competition with ones of the neighboring states.

Flexibility, I am sure, opens up enormous opportunities for Europe. For politicians – to learn from one another determination for complex decision making, for businesses – to compete and create cross-border partnerships, for citizens – to work and live without worries about customs, visas or currency risks.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The third reference point in creating well being of Europe is dynamism.

Accession of ten new member states for many was „a wake-up call“ from a long sleep, making the old EU member states to take a more serious approach to structural problems and highlighting the need for modernization of the EU budget.

It is obvious today that the skeptics of the EU enlargement were wrong when they said that the enlargement was early and the appropriate preparation for it was lacking. We have numerous examples of excellent results of this synthesis of the East and the West. The United Kingdom and Ireland took the view of the right to free job-seeking as a benefit rather than a threat to their economies. Now these countries enjoy the economic growth generated by low-cost workforce from Eastern Europe.

I believe that the Services Directive would be yet another step that will give an additional push for key reforms in Europe and narrow the gap between better-off and worse-off member states of the EU.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

All those present here know that the European Union has ambitious plans in the area of international policy. Successful implementation of plans depends upon the fourth point of reference, namely the principle of European unity and solidarity.

Europe is only learning the art of single-face communication with its strategic partners in the East, Ukraine and Russia. If, however, we want to have, as former President of the EU Commission Romano Prodi puts it, “a circle of friends in the EU neighborhood” in future, we must take the EU Neighborhood Policy more seriously and start investing into it more.

Future energy resources and export markets are behind the Eastern border of the EU, therefore Europe should be interested in creating an partnerships based on moral values, rather than establishing cold, interest-driven relations. The European leaders have to speak with Vladimir Putin in one voice, as individual Member States’ interests would only undermine the foundations on which strategic partnership between the EU and Russian is built.

Also, let’s make it clear - the enlargement of NATO and the European Union does not guarantee democracy in the European neighborhood and beyond. On the contrary, they put additional responsibilities and obligations on our shoulders in order to help fragile governments in the Black Sea region to go through the process of reforms and democratization.

Hard work is ahead of us. It is our obligation today to help Ukraine, Georgia or Moldova to build internal political consensus on the strategic economic and foreign policies that these countries want to pursue; to help them restore their confidence in public institutions and upgrade ways in which public policies are made. Finally, to unfreeze the “frozen conflicts”, that divide societies and are obstacles to their economic development.

To make the vision of free and democratic region from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea come true, we need contributions from all EU member states and the EU Commission. Equally, the EU Neighborhood Policy and cooperation between the South Caucasian states can not be hostage to the prospects of the EU-Russian relations.

Having this in mind, it is the new EU Member States that should take the lead and formulate a comprehensive policy for meeting the needs of democratizing Black Sea Region. We know the region and the mindset of people, we have gone through similar reforms and we know the pitfalls and the painful medicines.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Everyday we talk about European fashion, European life-style, European kitchen or European football. By doing so, we do not question the meaning of those concepts and understand each other easily. Today the time is ripe to discuss and reach an agreement over the common vision of political and economic development of the EU.

Looking towards the future, the founding fathers of the European project wisely kept the wide ideological and physical boundaries for the rapidly evolving economic and political model of Europe. I believe there is no point for us to reinvent the wheel. In many ways the task that we are facing today is simpler – we must consolidate the achievements and prudently continue what has been started

Europe has never been as strong with its diversity. Never before have we had such opportunities for joint action, reforms and development of democracy in the neighborhood.

I call on you to make the best of them and not to miss the historic opportunity to address today the challenges of tomorrow’s Europe.