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On October 11, in Erfurt, a German twin city of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius for thirty years, Lithuanian foreign minister Antanas Valionis participated in “Erfurter Dialog” (“The Erfurt Dialogues”) and made a speech “Together in the United Europe”. The minister recalled that in August this year Lithuania and Germany celebrated the 10th anniversary of the restoration of the diplomatic relations, which forms an excellent base for the further harmonious cooperation between Lithuania and Germany. Minister Valionis, reviewing the experience of Lithuania’s reintegration into the democratic Europe, said: “At the time, Lithuania and other “new democracies” had declared without hesitation the priorities of the membership in the European Union and NATO. The member countries in all the honorable forums declared their support for this determination and showed directions how to seek the membership. The Germany’s highest officials had successfully played their part of the “advocates for the Baltic countries”. It seemed to some of the candidate countries that membership was very close, just round the corner. However, today NATO has only three new members while the European Union has none. There are citizens in the candidate countries who think that the constantly arising new road signs towards the membership are instruments of delaying the accession.” As Lithuania enters the Euro-Atlantic institutions, she brings the experience of a stable and effective democracy, integration, good neighborhood as well as of overcoming narrow national prides for the sake of security and stability. Lithuania brings a new sensible perception of the solidarity, which changes in essence our old conceptions of geographical distances and of responsibility for Europe, minister Valionis said. Indicating that political integration would be a logical step of the evolution of the European Union, minister Valionis drew the attention to the necessity of preventing the formation of exclusive and closed groups, bodies or cores which could endanger the solidarity and the great idea of the uniting Europe. -------------- ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER (in Lithuanian)