News

Berlin, 25 October 2005

Your Excellency Mr. President,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me a genuine pleasure to address you at this moment important for both Germany and the European Union. I believe that today’s conference provided a useful opportunity for you to exchange views on the politics towards European Eastern neighbourhood.

I hope that we, the new EU Member States, have, over nearly one and a half years, succeeded in convincing you how important attention to the Eastern neighborhood is. For this attention to be structured, it is imperative that we transfer our experience in this area, because we share common historic experience, cultural links and relations of neighborhood with the East.

I believe that our experience in cooperation with the largest EU neighbor in the East – Russia – would be of particular benefit to you. Today, Lithuania and Russia enjoy friendly neighborly relations, development of which is quite successful: we have signed border and readmission agreements, solved the problem of passenger transit through Lithuania. Viewing Germany as one of the key actors in the cooperation between the European Union and Eastern Europe, I would like to share with you a number of insights related to the big neighbor in the East.

In Russia and Europe, some believe that Kremlin’s monopoly on power, coupled with nationalism and economy based on the sale of raw mineral resources, can be sustainable.

This is a very risky approach indeed, which will not necessarily either bring maximum benefits for the Russian society or result in the adequate place of Russia in the future European architecture.

I would like to see Russia as a responsible and open stakeholder in the European neighborhood affairs. 

What do we need to achieve this grand vision?

First of all, we need full trust amongst the partners. Closed Russian politics and self-imposed isolation from European affairs should not be a feature of the EU–Russia relationship as it excludes the possibility to upgrade our partnership to the new quality - to transform the interest-based cooperation into the community of shared values and interests. Only democratic Russia, linked to Europe by cultural, strategic and economic ties, will no doubt deserve a greater say in European affairs.

One must understand - Lithuania and other Western countries do not call for the democratic change in Russia, or in Belarus for that matter, for the sake of weakening those countries. To the contrary, Russia needs to find its own way to organize democratic society and to build a responsible government based on the rule of law and justice to all.

Secondly, we have to stop looking at Russia as Europe’s gas station. Relationships that are built on one coincidence of interests have never been particularly stable. There is much more that we can add to our cooperation beyond trade in energy resources. Constructive, open dialogue between two partners, linked by cultural, strategic and economic ties – that would be our vision of the EU-Russia relationship. We should demonstrate to Russia, that in our relationship with it we stand on ideals, not merely on narrow pragmatic interests. We should work and engage today’s Russia as we lay the foundation for the work with the democratic Russia of tomorrow.

Thirdly, we have to engage Russia constructively in order to achieve success of our policies in our common European neighborhood. Russia has a significant role to play, in the solution of frozen conflicts in particular. Today security and stability are key for the New democracies in the Black Sea Region. Without them we cannot expect to reach progress in all the other spheres of political life.

Ladies and Gentleman,

It was President Putin who first declared a goal to create “the ring of friends” around the borders of Russia. The same analogy was used by the former President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, launching what we know today as the European Neighborhood Policy.

So what prevents us from cooperating instead of competing for influence in the Eastern neighborhood region that has huge economic potential, abundance of human and mineral resources? There are several reasons to this.

The first one – some vocal people in Russia understand the volcanic eruptions of grass root democracy in the neighborhood as a direct threat to Russia’s legitimate interests in those countries. Therefore, instead of helping and getting involved in building new democracies in Georgia, Ukraine or Moldova, Russia is waiting on the side.

It is a very unfortunate situation, since the willingness from the Russian side to take a proactive part in the solution of conflicts in the Black Sea Region could help unite the divided nations, end conflicts and boost economic growth and stability efforts not only in the South, but also in the North Caucasus.

The second reason – Europe itself must develop a roadmap on how to approach the interests of neighboring countries and how to engage Russia in the region’s processes. For these efforts, we need a broad European and transatlantic consensus - enhanced coordination and cooperation between the EU and the United States on the Black Sea Agenda. The sooner we pool our expertise and efforts, the better for the states in the Black Sea Region, the better for truly democratic changes in Russia.

By answering Russia’s concerns and by moving resolutely to create our own roadmap, we have all the chances of creating a modern European area, linked by free trade, common values and the single market. A fine-tuned template that would eliminate the concept of balance of powers forevermore and will offer, instead, responsible partnership.

Dear diplomats, I wish you all success in the challenging task of implementing the future vision of the prosperous, strong, safe and united European continent. Thank you for your attention.