16 September
During her official visit to Washington DC (US), Mrs Irena Degutienë, Speaker of the Seimas, attended the meeting of the Community of Democracies Parliamentary Forum in Washington.
During her welcome address, the Head of the Lithuanian Parliament invited the Forum to consider the ways to promote consolidation of democracy in Eastern Europe and anticipate actions preventing the closure of this window of opportunity. The Speaker of the Seimas pointed out that a window could be seen as a metaphor of both division and unity between countries and regions.
“Eastern European nationals can clearly feel the distinction. The eastern neighbourhood still remains a No Man’s Land between the European Union and the post-Soviet area characterised by the intensifying integration process. Unfortunately, we hear all too often that it all amounts to formal competition between the EU’s Free Trade Area and the Russian-Kazakh-Belarusian customs union, or between the NATO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. By focusing on the economic and security dimensions alone, we underestimate the phenomenon. What in fact it represents is a competition between differing values, political systems, and concepts of democracy. Transparency, mutual trust, openness, and close contacts between member states underpin security in the EU. In the meantime, the Eastern neighbourhood is dominated by centralized political regimes with economy inextricably dependent on the political system,” Degutienë observed.
According to the Seimas Speaker, this clearly demonstrates that common European security is far from being a completed task; the EU and NATO must help its Eastern partners find roads of escape from the political and geopolitical trap. Degutienë signalled that unless these roads of escape are found, Russia will complete the construction of the security system alone guided by its own interests.
“This is why we need to promote and highlight the social, political, and economic benefits of the European and transatlantic model to the people in our eastern neighbourhood”, the Speaker continued.
The Lithuanian parliamentary leader observed that it is now common knowledge that the EU made a mistake in 2005 by failing to offer at least a distant EU membership prospect to Ukraine following the Orange Revolution.
“This decision might have changed the path of political and economic development in this strategically important Eastern European country, and Ukraine would now have a functioning political and economic system to speak of, a system based on European rules and not oligarchy standards. After all, the prospect of EU membership is the best tool to promote reform in the EU neighbourhood, and Lithuania can corroborate that based on its own experience,” Degutienë remarked.
The Speaker stressed that Europe must decide on the future of its enlargement policy. “In the meantime, in the wait for the EU member states to reach consensus in this regard, the best solution is to focus on the establishment of the EU Free Trade Area and visa-free regime between the EU and partner countries. The EU should open its market to the greatest possible extent, offering the opening of its markets as a rung on the ladder leading to full membership of the Community rather than an alternative to the EU accession. This is the way to escape from the vicious circle of no prospects for EU membership from the Union and no motivation for non-EU members to reform and gradually meet the EU standards. Today, this window of opportunity is open for Moldova. It is imperative that the EU and the US find a way to help Moldova to continue on the path of democratic political and economic reform,” the head of the Lithuanian Parliament observed.
According to Degutienë, the key problem in the EU foreign policy is the approach that gives priority to considering Russia’s position and views.
“Unfortunately, over the two decades after the Cold War, the EU proved unable to create a package of measures to encourage modernization in Russia following the European rules, and not the idiosyncratic Russian model of development,” Degutienë noticed.
According to the Speaker of the Seimas, the EU is too willing to offer a variety of measures to Russia with no strings attached, which it presents to Ukraine and Georgia under the guise of incentives to undertake reforms.
“Is it normal that South Ossetian residents with illegally issued Russian passports find their way to EU easier than people from Georgia, member of the EU’s Eastern Partnership Initiative?” Degutienë asked.
The Lithuanian parliamentary leader expressed her hope that the US “reset” policy in relations with Russia will neither translate into the “Russia first” principle nor lead to arrangements between the major geopolitical players at the expense of security of small Eastern European states.
“We support the US reset policy in relations with Russia as a strategy for modernization of Russia and we want the modernisation process to encompass not only the economic sector but also entail the rule of law, democratic cohesion, and structural political reform in Russia”, Degutienë emphasised. “This is the only way “the window of opportunity” will stand for a metaphor of unification and not division between neighbours.”
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and Senator John McCain took part in the debate of the Community of Democracies Parliamentary Forum and signed the Declaration Establishing the Forum prior to the event. Degutienë, Speaker of the Seimas, was the first to sign the Declaration on 12 March 2010.
Secretariat of the Speaker of the Seimas
Mr Juozas Ruzgys, Advisor to the Speaker, tel. 239 6023, 8 698 42073
