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I am grateful to the organisers for the invitation to participate and open the round-table discussion on the ambitious topic: What should Lithuania’s mission in Europe be and what policy do we stand for in Europe?

The topic is important not only to the politicians, diplomats and representatives of the academia gathered here. I am convinced that we will necessarily have to continue this discussion or, even better, turn it into a continuous dialogue. I think that the panorama of Vilnius that opens from the twenty-second floor will inspire the distinguished participants to reach far-sighted conclusions, while the hard table and the black coffee will help in remaining down to earth.

I will begin with the European Council’s summit in Saloniki last week, which has a threefold significance to us.

This summit will go down in history as the first Council attended by the representatives of Lithuania who had the mandate obtained from our citizens in a referendum for the Eurointegrationist aims of the Government.

The first baptism of Lithuania as an essentially full-fledged member took place in Saloniki. We discussed the Final Document of the Convention and considered the issues of the convocation of the Intergovernmental Conference, borders, migration and other internal matters, as well as the “doctrine” of the EU security policies.

Lastly, from a practical point of view, this was the first EU Summit in the preparation for which the representatives of Lithuania passed the whole cycle of preparation and deliberation (in working groups, the Committee of Permanent Representatives, and the General Affairs and External Relations Council).

Our involvement – the involvement of the members of our Government and employees of the ministries into the activities of the EU Council began smoothly enough, without clamour or pomp.

On the basis of the experience of participation in the Saloniki Summit and the joint work with the ministers of the EU countries, I would like to present several suggestions about Lithuania’s European policy for you consideration.

First, Lithuania’s mission in Europe must be consistent and purposeful, based on concrete political and economic interests.

A decade of closer relations between Lithuania and the European Union, which was crowned by the accession negotiations, was an excellent school of experience and a test of our statehood. The “epopees” of Kaliningrad transit or the funding of the consequences of the shutdown of Ignalina Nuclear Power Station showed the ways of solving issues of paramount importance to Lithuania.

An important stage is over. Having affirmed our European goals through joint efforts and by foreign policy means, we will now have to ensure continuity of the representation of interests in the EU Intergovernmental Conference in October, and later – by getting particularly involved in the discussions of the new EU budget.

Second, the gradually evolving European policy of Lithuania is not and will not be static. Although the Accession negotiations are over, the European multilateral negotiations in Brussels and in the capitals of the 24 European countries are accelerating. The diplomatic service will continue to be the basic tool, while the diplomatic negotiations will be the basic concept in forging alliances on constitutional, political or economic and financial issues in the European Union.

This is also reflected in the reports of the President of the Republic of Lithuania. This is a logical outcome of the implementation of the Government programme. This was extensively discussed during the convention of the heads of diplomatic missions at the beginning of this year, as well as during the meeting of Lithuanian ambassadors and the officials of the Mission to the EU that took place in Brussels a couple of weeks ago.

Lithuania’s European policy has the following basic principles: the external and internal security of the state and the economic welfare of Lithuanian citizens. The prospects of joining the Schengen Agreement and the European Monetary Union in 2005-2007 as well as the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy in Lithuania are among the most important items on the future agenda. Furthermore, we must become active participants in the EU-Russia energy dialogue and make efforts to join the transport and energy infrastructure networks of the EU and the Baltic region.

I would like to emphasise the duty of protecting the external EU border coinciding with our state border as a specific task for Lithuania, resulting from our geopolitical situation.

Third and, at the moment, most important, we must learn our interests well, understand the goals that we set for ourselves, and be able to fulfil them.

As Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ana Palacio recently said, “the secret of Europe is that everyone in the EU is entitled to defend their interests legitimately.”
We began participating as observers in the work of EU institutions only a few months ago, yet today we already perceive how our participation changes the relations between institutions in Europe and poses new requirements for the dynamic and pro-active formulation of the working positions in Brussels.

This leads to the fourth suggestion: that of the necessity to preserve balance between the spheres of domestic and foreign policies though the co-ordination of the formation of Lithuania’s European policy.

My predecessors often used to have to explain that the success of Lithuania’s integration does not depend on the foreign policy alone. Paradoxically, today I have to argue that the EU is not just a domestic policy matter. The European Union policy is a unique example of the co-ordination of domestic and foreign policies. If we don’t realise this fact, we risk squandering our limited resources, obscuring the priorities of the state, and failing to achieve those international positions of Lithuania that are discussed so much.

I am convinced that the relations with neighbouring Poland and Latvia, as well as with Denmark and Germany, will remain part of our foreign policy during the coming decades, although membership in the Union will bring us closer to the Member States in solving economic or foreign policy goals.

Co-operation between the Nordic and Baltic Six (NB-6) and the initiatives regarding the environmental protection of the Baltic Sea or the Middle East presented to and adopted by the Saloniki Summit serve as good illustrations of such a process. 

On the other hand, the transatlantic tension arising from the Iraq crisis shows that difficult choices and complex co-ordination of interests await us in the future. The newly considered security concept of the EU puts the factors of migration, corruption, and demography and energy dependency in the first position.

Our aim is to take an active part in the EU decision-making process or, to put it differently, to initiate and participate in building coalitions of Member States based on shared interests. 

I am certain that this can be achieved only if the diplomatic service is fully involved in dealing with EU affairs. It had, has and will have the responsibility of co-ordinating Lithuanian positions and presenting them abroad to the EU institutions and Members States.

Today, when we discuss the issues of energy, law and order, education and culture or fighting illegal migration, we apply the experience of European diplomacy as well.

In conclusion, I would like to say a couple of words about Lithuanian interests in the New Neighbourhood initiative of the European Union. Presidential adviser Alvydas Medalinskas and Professor Raimondas Lopata are well-known experts on these issues and I do not want to steal their thunder.

I would only say this: European integration provides an opportunity to create and fulfil the vision of the development and stability of the Baltic region for the first time in the modern history of Lithuania.

In order to take the opening opportunities and put our experience in relations with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to use, we made concrete proposals to the European Union partners regarding the development of relations between the enlarged EU and the New Neighbours.

Our proposals are based on the need to find – or, perhaps, to discover – a balance between Europe’s neighbours to the northeast and to the south. Currently, the EU is focused on co-operation with the Mediterranean countries within the framework of the Barcelona process. Without decreasing its attention to this partnership, the EU must strengthen relations with its neighbours to the east. Lithuania, as well as Poland, has a particular role in this regard.

The prospect of integration to the EU is the best incentive for domestic political and economic reforms. We aim to support EU orientation of countries such as Ukraine and Moldova that are seeking membership. The EU should create a special, more flexible financial instrument for the implementation of the New Neighbourhood initiative. This Lithuanian proposal is indirectly related to our other proposal: to establish funds for Kaliningrad and prepare a joint strategy of the European Union and Russia regarding the development of the Kaliningrad Oblast.

Your Honours,

Lithuania must find optimal ways to realise, formulate and defend her interests in Europe, as well as co-ordinate them with the goals of other members of the European family.

We all have the shared goal of turning this stage of the European Union’s development into a stimulus for the implementation of reforms that are necessary for Europe and Lithuania, that are necessary for the well-being of our people.