SPEECH
BY PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC MARTTI AHTISAARI AT A
CONFERENCE
ARRANGED BY THE PARLIAMENT OF ESTONIA IN TALLINN ON
5.11.1999
ESTONIA AND THE EU: ESTONIA ON ITS WAY TO
A CHANGING EUROPE
The Finnish Presidency of the European Union will end
in just under two months’ time, but many of the
most important events of our semester at the helm
still lie ahead. The most important meetings from the
perspective of this conference’s theme, European
integration, will be the Northern Dimension
conference next week and the European summit on 10-11
December. The venue for both will be Helsinki.
* * *
EU enlargement is one
of the most important challenges with which the
Finnish Presidency is having to deal. Very important
decisions in this respect will be made at the
Helsinki summit. Their effects will reach far into
the next millennium.
For an observer of the
enlargement process it has been a joy to witness the
progress that Estonia has made in her efforts to
complete the necessary transition. It is likewise
gratifying that the negotiations have gone so well
that Estonia is likely to be among the first group of
countries to accede to membership.
Nevertheless, it is
not yet time for congratulations, but rather for
continuing hard work. The eastward enlargement of the
European Union is an enormously broad process with
many dimensions. Nowhere in history can we find
anything like it. It is a unique challenge both for
the Union itself and the countries now seeking
membership.
* * *
The European Union has
undergone remarkable changes in the course of its
history. It has admitted new members in several waves
and its powers have expanded to encompass many
sectors. The Union has been successful in responding
to external challenges and internal needs.
In its own way, the
accession of Finland, Sweden and Austria brought the
Union quite a historic new dimension, especially if
we think of the present candidate countries in
Central Europe. The last enlargement marked the end
of a pattern of thinking that had come into being
during the long period when Europe was divided.
Although it did not yet take the Union into territory
that had formerly been the other side of the Iron
Curtain, it did shatter many prejudices and attitudes
that had been left behind by the passage of time.
Now we have an
opportunity to develop Europe by letting countries
that have discarded their undemocratic models of
government and restored their independence join us in
the European Union.
When Sweden and
Finland joined, the EU expanded across the Baltic to
beyond the Arctic Circle and acquired a frontier
1,300 kilometres long with the Russian Federation.
This development made the Union a very important and
influential actor in the North.
The present expansion
process, in which all three of the Baltic States and
Poland are taking part, further accentuates the
importance of northern Europe for the Union’s
external relations.
It is inevitably increasing the amount of attention
that the Union is devoting to the northern parts of
Europe and their special features. The accession of
the new members will extend the border between the
EU, on the one hand, and Russia and other CIS
countries, on the other, a good deal southwards.
* * *
Finnish ideas about a
separate northern dimension for the EU were first
presented here in Estonia in 1994 – even before
our membership became a reality. I myself made a
speech in Tartu the same year and in it I emphasised
the importance of an enlarging Union and the fact
that the Baltic Sea region could develop into one of
the focal points of our continent, "the green
northern zone of Europe".
The Northern Dimension
initiative that we officially presented three years
later has developed quite rapidly into a part of
Union policy. Member states and partner countries
will be meeting in Helsinki next week to deliberate
the content of the Northern Dimension and its
practical implementation.
The Northern Dimension
has already promoted and will continue to promote the
EU’s eastward enlargement, in addition to
increasing the likelihood that the applicant
countries in the North will gain membership. Our
starting point has been from the outset that all of
the present applicants on the Baltic, i.e. Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, will eventually join
the European Union.
The Northern Dimension
accords with the totality of EU policy. There is no
conflict between it and, for example, the
Union’s Mediterranean policy; on the contrary,
they are complementary. As is the case with
Mediterranean affairs, the matters that we discuss
within the Northern Dimension context concern the
whole of Europe; they are things that transcend
national boundaries, such as environmental safety,
pan-European transport networks and eradicating
organised crime, to mention but a few examples. It is
all about developing the whole of Europe.
As we know, the
countries on the Baltic differ in many ways from the
other candidates because of their geographical
location and climate. With the aid of the Northern
Dimension programme, the basic and special features
of this "green and northern zone of Europe"
can be taken into account. The Northern Dimension
will help Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to
adapt to their new role, which will make them a
central actor in developing cooperation between the
EU, on the one hand, and Russia and the nearby CIS
countries, on the other. The Northern Dimension will
support cooperation in the Baltic Sea region and give
a boost to many of the concrete projects being
undertaken by the countries there in a variety of
spheres.
The Northern Dimension
has received widespread support from countries
outside the Union. Estonia’s support and ideas
have been very important in developing the concept.
The work of the Council of Baltic Sea States has
benefited greatly from Estonia’s contribution.
Nor must we forget the
Baltic States’ cooperation between themselves
and with the Nordic countries within the so-called
5+3 configuration. This supports both regional
cooperation and the process of European integration
overall.
* * *
The Council of Baltic
Sea States is acquiring a new role as an instrument
for developing relations between an enlarging Union
and Russia. The Council can play an important part in
the development of the Northern Dimension by
prioritising and coordinating existing projects and
giving concrete form to new ideas that will create
added value.
In its capacity as a
promoter of cooperation between Russia and its
neighbours in the Baltic Sea region, the Council can
likewise act in many ways that will benefit everyone.
Border regions face many other challenges in the
fields of infrastructure, countering water pollution
and handling border controls. The question that we
must now address is how we can best cooperate to
achieve progress in these matters.
The Council is also
making a very significant contribution to the
Northern Dimension, in which cooperation transcending
regions and local administrative structures can add
positively to everything that is already being done
in this sphere.
* * *
When it met in Vienna
in December last year, the European Council
thoroughly examined the state of the enlargement
process. Since it began in Luxembourg two years ago,
the process has been making good progress.
Progress from now on
will depend on both the EU’s own preparations
and the measures the candidates themselves take to
pave the way for membership. For as long as Finland
holds the Presidency, we shall do our best to make
sure that the necessary reforms are set in motion and
that the enlargement process continues to advance
consistently and rapidly without any candidate being
discriminating against.
All of the candidates
will be assessed on their merits. Membership will be
based on the criteria set in Copenhagen in 1993.
Only a couple of weeks
ago, the Commission published its assessments of the
progress that candidates have been making. The report
concerning Estonia is in general positive: democracy
has been consolidated, macroeconomic stability has
been maintained and the market economy has been
strengthened in preparation for future competition.
Many reforms have already been implemented, but much
still remains to be done – as is the case in all
of the other candidate countries as well.
A point that
especially needs to be remembered is that often
nothing much happens on the implementation side
unless the requisite administrative ability and
resources are available. Citizens must be able to
have confidence in their official machinery and
believe that it is fair. That is one of the matters
of honour that mean so much to us peoples who live in
northern Europe.
It is a pleasure to
see that Estonia’s membership of the World Trade
Organisation is close to becoming a reality and that
this country has been continuing to bring itself into
alignment with the EU’s foreign and security
policy. One of the most recent instances in which
this showed itself was the Kosovo crisis.
All in all, Estonia is
on a road of lasting development despite having to
contend with economic pressures from both East and
West. Estonia is one of the countries that have done
most to carry through economic reforms. It is evident
that thanks precisely to these measures your country
has achieved better macroeconomic stability and a
more secure upswing. I believe that here, as in all
of the candidate countries, there is still a lot of
unharnessed energy that can be used to narrow the gap
relative to the EU members. In this respect we can
derive special optimism from the high educational
standard in the candidate countries on the Baltic,
from their strong work motivation and from the fact
that mutual investment between the countries of
northern Europe is growing.
The enlargement of the
Union is a positive process from Estonia’s
perspective. The advantages are spread across several
areas. The conditions for trade will improve and new
markets will emerge. This will attract new investors
and tourists. The adoption of Union legislation that
is a prerequisite for membership is having a positive
effect on the development of regions as well as on
social and environmental standards. Harmonisation
presupposes that such legislation as Estonia’s
Language Act accords with EU norms and international
standards. This is very important for business, to
foreign investors and also for the country’s
internal development.
As we have seen this
autumn in the Commission reports on the candidate
countries, all of them have made progress and drawn
closer to the Union. In the final analysis, however,
there is a lot more involved than negotiations on
administrative or technical matters. What we are
dealing with is a process of change involving large
numbers of people. It is a process that will enhance
the global status of our European community, which
increases stability and security. It is a process in
which we must take care that everyone gains.
When it meets in
Helsinki in December, the European Council will
decide on whether or not to begin negotiations with
new candidate countries. We can rejoice together with
Estonia that the two neighbouring countries Latvia
and Lithuania have been developing so well that the
Commission has been able to recommend commencing
pre-accession negotiations with them. There seems to
be quite broad agreement among the EU members that
these countries so close to us should, together with
others, begin negotiations in the same way as Estonia
and five other countries did in the spring of last
year.
I strongly believe
that when Estonia and all of the other candidates
have joined us, they will turn out to be success
stories with much to give the entire Union.
The European Union is
what its member states make it. Important factors in
the Europe of the next millennium will be a capacity
for cooperation and an ability to respond to the
various challenges that an increasingly complex
society is throwing at us. In this development,
Finland and Estonia – among the other nations
large and small – will be able to act as
industrious builders of a Europe united for our
common good.
