LITHUANIA'S SEIMAS SPEAKER IN US CALLS FOR "OPEN WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY"
Updated 2010-09-24
Lithuania's Parliamentary Speaker Irena Degutiene has urged member-nations of the Community of Democracies in the United States to keep "open window of opportunities in Eastern Europe." In a speech at the meeting of the community's Parliamentary Forum in Washington D.C., Degutiene emphised the need to strengthen democracy in Eastern Euroope:
"These countries continue to be in between of two integration areas - the European Union (EU) on one side and intensifying integration processes in the post-Soviet territory on the other. Unfortunately, we often hear statements that this is formal competition between the free trade territory offered by the European Union to its partners and the Russian-Belarusian-Kazakh customs union or between NATO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. It is indeed unfair putting the difference to the economic or the defense dimension only because it is actually a quality competition between political systems of different values and different concepts of democracy," said the Lithuanian speaker.
In her opinion, this clearly shows that development of an integral European security system was still to be finished and the EU and NATO must come up with ways to enable partners in the East to liberate from the political and geopolitical trap.
Degutiene warned that failure to find the methods could lead to Russia finishing the construction of the European security system.
The Lithuanian official noted that "today many openly admit that it was the EU's mistake not to offer Ukraine at least a distant perspective of membership after the "orange" revolution of 2005."
"Maybe the decision would have changed the course of political and economic development of the Eastern European nation of extreme strategic importance, and we would be speaking about functioning of Ukraine's political and economic system based on European rather than oligarchic rules. EU membership perspective is the instrument that most encourages neighboring states to launch reforms, and Lithuania can prove it based on
its own experience," said Degutiene.
its own experience," said Degutiene.
She emphasized that Europe should make a clear decision on its further expansion policy. In her opinion, attempts to first of all consider Russia's position and opinion is one of the problems of EU's foreign policy. "Unfortunately, the European Union has not developed a package of instruments over the two decades since the Cold War to encourage Russia's modernization under the scenario of adopting European rules, not under its
own Russian model," the Lithuanian parliamentary speaker noted.
own Russian model," the Lithuanian parliamentary speaker noted.
She expressed a belief that the US-initiated policy of "reset" with Russia would not become a new expression of the "Russia first" principle and will not lead to agreements of the major geopolitical
players at the expense of security of the small Eastern European countries. "We support the US "reset" policy as a strategy for Russia's modernization and, at the same time, seek that the Russian modernization goes beyond the economic sector but also the principle of superiority of law, democratic set-up and structural political reform. This is the only way to make the window of opportunities a symbol that would bring neighbors closer together not further apart," she concluded.
players at the expense of security of the small Eastern European countries. "We support the US "reset" policy as a strategy for Russia's modernization and, at the same time, seek that the Russian modernization goes beyond the economic sector but also the principle of superiority of law, democratic set-up and structural political reform. This is the only way to make the window of opportunities a symbol that would bring neighbors closer together not further apart," she concluded.
