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The President of the Republic On the occasion of Europe Day May 9, 2005 at Kadriorg09.05.2005
Honourable ministers,
Excellencies,
Dear people of Estonia!
Today is Europe Day, a day when we feel happiness about peaceful development and deepening cooperation on our continent. Yesterday was Mother's Day - a day of love and warmth of home for many families all over the world. Both, today and yesterday are days of reconciliation, when we try to overcome the division lines left from the last big war and achieve better concordance between nations and people.
Each family, each nation and continent desires peace and concordance, which would secure it. The proposal made 55 years ago by the French foreign minister Robert Schuman has been fruitful and has led to the creation of what is now the European Union.
Putting into words the idea of peaceful and close cooperation between the European countries, Robert Schuman became a pathfinder. His message helped the people of Europe to restore their vitality, but it also became an historical initiative from which the entire civilisation and the whole world have benefited.
Let's recall that when this proposal was voiced, Europe was still in ruins and the nations that had lost millions of people were still in mourning. But that historical initiative helped to overcome confrontation and opened for the sake of peace and the future a new page in the history - an era of cooperation between the people of Europe.
Now, when the General Assembly of the United Nations Organisation has invited to observe 8 and 9 May as a time of reconciliation and remembrance of the victims of war, the whole Europe does it together.
The Republic of Estonia did not participate in World War II, but it paid a heavy price. In summer 1940 we lost our independence due to a conspiracy of two totalitarian states and forcible division of Europe. About a hundred thousand Estonian men were forced to fight in foreign uniforms on both sides in that war. Tens of thousands fell in the battles, tens of thousands were taken away from their homes by foreign power, and many of them never came back home.
The biggest tragedy of our people was human loss, loss of statehood, mental and physical oppression, and that has left us wounds that are healing very slowly. It may not be so easily understood, as unlike in Western Europe, the spring of 1945 did not bring liberty to our people.
Maybe, the fact that our nation has for so long been repressed by foreign power and all that time we have been yearning for freedom, makes us to better appreciate the Allied victory achieved over violent Nazi power. With deep respect we commemorate all those who fell in the war and together with other nations rejoice at liberty and cooperation in Europe
Estonia is ready for a dialogue and wishes to have good and friendly relations with all nations. We have repeatedly expressed it and also today, on Europe Day, we stretch our hand of friendship to everyone who is ready to accept it. This is the best way to show our respect towards the victims of the war and to look forward to the future.
Peace is invaluable. We see and experience that through every small thing around us, let alone the general advancement of our continent. A week ago a year had passed since the biggest enlargement in the history of the European Union. For Estonia this meant the achievement of a big historic goal and the possibility to be together in everything with the other European nations.
We are now bearing the obligation to share the responsibility for the wellbeing of our continent with the rest of the 25 EU member states. But, have we during this year started to apprehend our responsibility and to think what we, as citizens of the EU should do differently than before? I believe that we have not asked those questions often enough, let alone trying to answer them.
Anton Hansen Tammsaare encouraged our people to be aspiring, to dream and hope. Almost a hundred years ago he wrote: ''It is bad if we give up dreaming, it means weariness, inertness, indifference.'' But it means also resignation and being loser. Thanks to our courage not to stop dreaming, we got back our state and restored it after all the ordeals.
Now, together with our friends and those who share our views, we are ready for new joint efforts for the sake of more secure and prosperous life. On Europe Day we wish all nations better mutual understanding, cooperation and enhanced confidence in the future.
I wish that May of this year would be a time of shared hopes and setting of common goals.
Happy anniversary to you, Europe!
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