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Honourable President,
Excellencies,
Honourable members of the Convention,
Honourable participants of the conference,

When the conference of the Lithuanian Forum on the European Union’s Future was founded last year, I said that the success of the European Union’s future is out of the question without successful enlargement of the EU. Slightly more than two months ago in Copenhagen we successfully closed one of the pages of contemporary Lithuanian history. The most important political decisions required for EU enlargement have been adopted. It merely remains to frame them legally in the Treaty of Accession to the European Union, which will be signed in Athens this April. Together with the Prague invitations for the new members of NATO last December, this sets the direction of Lithuanian politics in the coming decades.   

The stage when Lithuania was one of the candidates to join one club or another is coming to an end. By becoming full-fledged members of the club, we receive new and powerful instruments for the formation, presentation and implementation of our national interests. Therefore, our present discussion on Lithuania’s future vision in Europe is as important as ever.

The Convention on the future of the EU may be considered as the first forum of the enlarging EU. It reflects the current diversity of interests in the EU, and their co-ordination allows searching for “coalitions” that would be acceptable to Lithuania. We are particularly interested in the experience and co-operation of the future members of the EU, as well as the smaller EU states and the so-called cohesion states.

Little time remains until the end of the work of the Convention on the future of Europe and the Intergovernmental Conference that will make far-reaching decisions. Although it has not yet been decided on when the intergovernmental conference will begin and end, our position, as well as the position of many other new members, is clear: the intergovernmental conference must begin only after the referendums of the future members, and it should end only when we have become full-fledged members of the EU.

As the negotiations on the future powers of the EU gain momentum, Lithuania is actively participating in them. Many thanks for this to our members of the Convention and the diplomatic service. On the other hand, our internal readiness for the ongoing debates in the Convention is as important as the participation in its work. I mean the readiness of the Lithuanian society and academic community to participate in the debates on the future of the EU and to voice their expectations regarding the EU Constitutional Treaty or the institutional make-up of the Union.

On this occasion, I would like to thank the members of the Forum for their active contribution to the public discussion on the future of the EU. The formation of public opinion on these important issues would be considerably impoverished without your efforts. I believe that the numerous and representative assembly of the public organisations participating in the Forum will continue the work they commenced in bringing the European Union closer to the Lithuanian citizens and in deepening public understanding of the processes taking place in the EU.

Lithuania will face a double challenge during this and the coming year – that of the beginning of full membership in the Union and that of the decisions regarding the future reforms of the EU. Lithuania will have to find its place in the EU at the same time as the enlarged European Union seeks to affirm its identity in the world. However, it must not be forgotten that EU membership – the strategic choice of all the governments of Lithuania – will first have to be approved by the citizens of Lithuania. Therefore, in the remainder of my speech I would like to discuss the most important political event of this year – the referendum on EU membership.

Today we still have to pass the crucial test: To prepare responsibly for the future referendum on Lithuania’s membership in the European Union. It is our duty that every participant of the referendum understands that they are voting not only for their family’s welfare and security and not only for the next day or year, but also for the long decades of Lithuania’s future.

It is not my opinion alone that the information campaign of the referendum must be wide and all-encompassing, and political in its spirit and form. The leadership of the State, parliamentarians, political parties, and labour unions plan to become involved in the campaign. We will seek that as many as possible various public organisations, business associations, and representatives of cultural and academic elites take part in the campaign.

We should not rely on the favourable results of surveys and sit still or, even worse, organise an official, bureaucratic information campaign lacking a clear vision. The decreasing voter turnout in the last presidential and parliamentary elections makes us believe that the mobilisation of voters must be given special attention. In this context, I would like to encourage you to prompt members and friends of your organisations to take part in the referendum. I think it is not worth letting others decide your future. Everyone should feel the civil duty to express their opinion in the referendum on such an important issue as membership in the EU. It is precisely this message of responsibility for the future of the country that we must convey to the society.

At the moment, as we are holding this discussion at the Academy of Science, the ambassadors who have finished the annual convention in Vilnius are giving lectures and meeting with people in Lithuanian towns and boroughs in order to discuss the prospects of the country’s membership in the EU. We do not hide the fact that people in rural areas and agricultural workers have the most questions regarding Lithuania’s membership in the EU. Therefore, we will try to use the events taking place before the referendum to present as much information about the advantages of the EU agricultural policies to our farmers as possible and show in concrete examples what each farmer will get out of future membership in the EU.

In conclusion, I would like to personally ask all the participants of this conference and the representatives of political parties to get involved, firstly, in the political campaign of the referendum, the success of which will largely depends on our political concord. This task is feasible with your political support and the wider involvement of urban and rural social groups, the Church, and non-governmental organisations.

I have no doubts that the results of the referendum will confirm the strategic choice of Lithuania and send a clear signal to our future partners in Europe.

Thank you for your attention.