| |
 | Speeches | | |
The President of the Republic at the 9th International Conference "Estonia and the European Union: Estonia on its way to a changing Europe" on October 31, 200231.10.2002
Honourable Conference Members,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, quite a remarkable fact deserves to be highlighted: a conference on an identical subject matter is taking place in Estonia for the ninth time already. Just recently it was seven years since our association agreement concluded with the European Union became effective. Almost the whole reform process and legislation of our restored independence having lasted for eleven years have brought Estonia closer to the law and economic area of the European Union. And now, our accession negotiations are on the point of coming to an end.
All of this is definitely an excellent proof that our aspirations are of serious nature. Yet over the years, the present conference has become a brainstorming with politicians, scientists and the public participating and, thus, helping indisputably to more clearly formulate and achieve our goals. In our single-minded action, we have been guided by conviction that we have belonged to the European civilization for nearly one thousand years. And just there where we are striving to return is our historical area of culture, but equally an economic environment and important security area close to us.
Each nation needs partners and co-operation in the contemporary world. And the majority of the European Union's member states have been our natural allies throughout the history. A small country with such a geopolitical location and economic potential like Estonia in the present globalizing world has no options to safeguard its future. Moreover - regional co-operation is carrying ever more weight today.
We must admit that over the years, since we have submitted our accession application, not only we but also the community of nations, we are striving for, have changed. On the one hand, the lessons learned have hardened us and added to our experience, but they also have made us more demanding to both our partners and ourselves. At the same time, the European Union is in a constant process of changing. All of this makes both sides to become aware of the specific values forming the basis of their co-operation.
As a matter of fact, the ongoing process of unification means just coordination of value judgements. Should we be looking for examples of to what extent synergy is a key to success, we could well take a look back at our recent history. A few more than a dozen years ago the small Estonia together with its neighbours, Latvia and Lithuania, began to attract the world's attention as shakers of the foundations of totalitarian power. Our endeavours tallied with those processes, which brought the whole world to the end of the cold war. The Berlin wall collapsed a year after Estonia's Parliament had declared that we were striving for independence and our laws had supremacy over those from Moscow. However, the most important thing was that many peoples banded together behind similar values.
They are doing it today as well - within the European Union, for the European Union constitutes in the strict sense of the word a system of shared values. And when this union will enlarge, every nation on its part will add something new to this system, yet at the same time, adapt to the existing substance. Thus, we can say that the source of the European Union`s wealth and strength are national identities clearly internalized and supported.
Integration into this system of values is not equal to ignoring idiosyncrasies. Every nation has something that can enrich the common culture. Estonia's idiosyncrasy, apart from our national culture and language, is certainly the fact that we are lying at the external border of the European Union and have a long-time experience of relations with the new neighbour of this alliance. Yet, on top of that, we also have a clean nature, rich flora and unique natural resources.
Other nations can equally enumerate many values, which form their contribution to the pool. And I am sure that all these nations, no matter big or small, are desirous to have on equal footing a say in deciding about the shared values. The electorate is expecting that both from national parliaments and from the European Parliament.
The voters in Estonia, like in many other countries, can express their decision about future in an accession referendum. I am in no doubt that not only the today's Members of Parliament present in this hall now but also future MP-s will make their weighty contribution to shaping the results of our referendum. To a large extent, people's attitudes are depending on the very resolutions adopted by you and the very explanations given to voters at your meetings with them. The fact that the majority of Estonian population is currently apt to support our accession to the European Union can be regarded as credit for confidence. A lot of work still remains to be done in order to explain all paragraphs of law and conditions agreed on at the accession talks. The example of Ireland has shown us that the people are not willing to and they must not decide proceeding from insufficient information.
In these explanations, the future of the European Union, too, must have its place. Also today, we should ask ourselves if we have done everything in our power to understand and to explain others what kind of an alliance Estonia hopefully soon is going to join, and what kind of development possibilities it will bring about. To a people, who have made so many efforts in order to attain their sovereignty, these questions definitely are not of minor importance. However, finding answers to them is not an easy task, especially considering that the European Union itself is in search of answers.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
During its entire existence, the European Union has paid respect to democratic principles. Big and small nations alike can use their say in their national interests and in order to preserve their national identity. The lines of thought of the convention on future confirm our perception of the European Union as a union of sovereign states, where a trustworthy control of the decisions made is secured by national parliaments. Unfortunately, the public is somewhat short of information about what has been devised by the convention. Yet who on earth, when not our own representatives in the convention, should make this information available to the people!
I hope the years of experience of organizing the present conference to be efficiently utilized later on as well and the today's conference to confirm Estonia`s active participation in shaping the future European Union.
I wish you a great success, and thank you for your attention.
|
| |
|
vpk.ee
