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Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,

First of all, taking advantage of this excellent opportunity, on behalf of our Community and myself let me congratulate you, dear Jerzy, on your birthday.

It is a great privilege for me to say a few welcoming word at already the second Parliamentary Forum meeting this year.  Being the chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee of Seimas I was a strong supporter of the idea to establish the parliamentary platform of the Community of Democracies and now as a Foreign Minister of Lithuania, which is chairing the Community of Democracies, I am extremely delighted to see it has materialized.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the parliament for the well-functioning of the democratic state. Twenty years ago the parliament in Lithuania was called the “Heart of Lithuania” and thousands of people resolved to defend it against the brutal oppression. To defend the parliament for Lithuania as well as for other peoples in Europe then meant to defend freedom, democracy and self-determination. However today we live with a notion of the changing world and therefore our strong commitment to democracy is more important then ever. World democratic society faces many hurdles in promoting its agenda at multilateral fora and the economic crisis has added new risks to democracy worldwide. The Resolution of Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania on the situation in Georgia, which recognizes its territorial integrity and expresses concern about the status of its occupied territories and refugees, endorsed on 1 of June this year, is one of the examples how parliamentarians can evince truth and justice in international relations.

The highly successful start of the Parliamentary Forum in Vilnius this year, also gave a lot of hope that it will continue its work with the same energy and that the fruitful discussion of the parliamentarians will have their follow up with the concrete projects in democracy promotion. In Vilnius you have already made the voice of democratic community heard on most important issues for democracy – issuing statements on situation in Georgia and Cuba as well a  supporting the nomination of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. This already second meeting of the Forum this year as well as your active engagement in the preparations of a new agenda of the Community’s work in democracy promotion and the launch of the new Global Democracy Work Plan show that your activities aren’t limited just to paper statements, but you are prepared to engage in more practical work.

Therefore, I would like to wish the Parliamentary Forum to become a truly vibrant contributor to the welfare and rights of people. Let this parliamentary meeting in Krakow become the one more step forward in strengthening the political dimension of the Community of Democracies, leading to many more meeting of parliamentarians in the forthcoming years.