Translation

PRESENTATION BY PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC MARTTI AHTISAARI
AT THE "TACITO VOLENTE - FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN TO THE BALTIC AS TACITUS WILLED IT" SEMINAR
IN TALLINN ON 12.11.1998


"THE POSITION OF FINLAND AND ESTONIA IN TODAY’S EUROPE"

To begin with, let me express my pleasure at being able to come here to beautiful Tallinn once again and bring my greetings to this seminar.

It is with great pleasure that we have been following developments in Estonia, this neighbour so dear to us, and the success that the efforts of our kindred people have yielded fills us with pride.

Only now, with the Cold War behind us and Europe in the process of unifying, is the relationship between Finland and Estonia finding its true significance. In that sense, the task of this seminar is fascinating.


We shall not forget history, but let us look ahead.

The historical link between Estonia and Finland bore fruit when Estonia launched her effort to gain membership of the European Union. Now we understand the importance of the links maintained, in difficult circumstances, between our citizens during the Soviet Era.

Thanks to Estonia’s open economy, Finland and Estonia are virtually a single market. Finnish investment has remained at a high level and we are now coming to the point where the managements of more and more companies are completely Estonian. The learning process has advanced at a dizzying speed.

Political contacts have reached a level that increasingly resembles our relations with the Scandinavian countries. The need to keep in touch is obvious and will only increase in the future. It is essential for both of us to know what is being thought and said on the other side of the Gulf of Finland. It has been easy for us to coordinate our views; after all, our national interests run very much parallel to each other.

Nevertheless, it is contacts between people that are the basis for everything. Ties of friendship across the Gulf of Finland have increased and diversified.

Now that visas are no longer required, travel has become decisively easier.

The abolition of the visa requirement meant more for relations between our countries than we probably grasped at the time. Many saw it as a legislative decision, but in fact there was much more involved. For Finns, freedom to travel had been a self-evident right for so long, whereas for Estonians it was a privilege of the few. Visa-free travel also has a symbolic significance. Based on our experience of it, we Finns have only positive things to say. This has not gone unnoticed in the European Union.


Estonian membership of the EU is a Finnish goal. One of the means by which this goal is being supported is our cooperation with other countries in our immediate region. The main areas of emphasis in this cooperation have been the environment and agriculture, but now there is beginning to be a clearer concentration also on preparations for EU membership. Finland hopes that pre-accession negotiations can soon commence also with Latvia and Lithuania. The Commission’s latest progress report is very encouraging in this respect.

The EU is politically committed to enlargement. Negotiations have now commenced. Finland pledges to work for undisturbed progress in taking the enlargement process forward.

The European Union must be a community of citizens. At the same time, its institutions must concentrate solely on the tasks entrusted to them. The EU will ensure that the vitality of member states strengthens. It is of paramount importance that the member states’ internal discourse on the EU is as thorough as possible prior to accession. Citizens must know what membership will really mean, both in terms of its impact on taxpayers’ and consumers’ pockets and on the governmental and political level.


The Baltic Sea has for centuries of history been a factor that both separates and unites. The present decade has also seen a change in the way in which security is discussed in the Baltic Sea region.

Through EU membership, Finland’s position was clarified and strengthened. The advent of the euro will ultimately make the EU a community that guarantees economic and political stability and has a global role. Its development is a major challenge.

After the Soviet Union had disintegrated and the independence of the Baltic States had been reinstated, the security situation began to be discussed there on a tabula rasa basis.

A credible national defensive capability is one of the pillars of sovereignty. Developing your defence forces is a major challenge. Officers trained in Finland have been able to help in this work. Finland has been very satisfied with the results of our cooperation in the sector of defence.

Finland and Estonia are active participants in so-called Baltsea cooperation, the purpose of which is to coordinate the assistance in the defence sector that the Baltic States are receiving.

Finland and Sweden are interested in the stability of the Baltic States. The region must not be dealt with as a separate entity in European security policy. It was on this basis that our shared initiatives for confidence-building measures in the Baltic Sea region were conceived. We have noticed that our views are respected.


It is impossible to talk of the Baltic Sea region without mentioning our common neighbour Russia. The crisis in that country is deep. There are no civil societies there, or else they are very weak. Yet economic interaction between the country and the rest of the world is essential. Russian will gain nothing by isolating herself. With the aid of its natural riches and educated people, the country can alter the course of its economic development.

From the perspective of Finland and Europe, it is important that Russia is assessing the Soviet Era honestly. President Yeltsin’s clear statement that the Soviet Union acted wrongly in attacking Finland in autumn 1939 strengthened the foundation of relations between Finland and Russia. Russia’s and Yeltsin’s role was central when the Baltic States re-attained their independence as the Soviet Union was disintegrating. With a view to increasing cooperation, it would be important for Russia to extend its assessment of the errors of the Soviet Era also to the Baltic States.

Enlargement of the European Union is the surest guarantee of growth in trade between Russia and her neighbours. Besides that, mutual dependence will increase as a consequence of new challenges to security.

In this context I would like to recall the vision of a Nordic Dimension that I outlined at Tartu University in 1994. It is now becoming a European Union policy. The initiative is founded on the EU’s basic principles, i.e. the maintenance of peace and stability through economic cooperation and mutual dependence. I believe the initiative will have an all-round positive effect on the development of both our region and the whole of Europe.

Positive development in Estonia’s, Latvia’s and Lithuania’s relations with Russia is important for the whole of Europe. So far, only Russia and Lithuania have signed a border treaty, and it is still to be ratified by the Duma. We hope that Estonia’s and Latvia’s border treaties will soon be signed and brought into force. A border treaty is a basic agreement between two sovereign neighbouring states and as such important, although its absence is not, as we know, an obstacle in negotiations for EU membership.

The situation of the Russophone segment of the population in, especially, Estonia and Latvia has caused friction in these countries’ relations with Russia from the very beginning. Finland can only point to the statements made by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Max van der Stoel and on the basis of which solutions have been found for one problem after the other. The latest example of this was the Latvian referendum, which finally gave the seal of approval for a law concerning the naturalisation of children. Similar legislation is now before the Riigikogu in Estonia.

Finland has been following with satisfaction Estonia’s actions to promote the integration of minorities, and we have been especially pleased at your emphasis on children and young adults. Integration is a matter for the next generation and lasting development can not be expected without a reorganisation of the school system. The preservation of children’s and young adults’ own identity and their social wellbeing must be taken care of. Well-balanced young people grow into well-balanced citizens.


History has separated Finland and Estonia; the new development in Europe is bringing us together. Small states have risen to a status of equality among the big ones of the continent. No longer does anyone dictate the destinies of others. Common structures guarantee legality and fairness. It is for this kind of Europe that Finland and Estonia are working together around the same table.


In the last century, the Fennophiles summed up their programme thus: "Swedes we are not, Russians we do not wish to become, let us therefore be Finns."

In the early years of the present century, the Estonian poet Gustav Suits, who also worked in Finland for several years, went a shade further in an international direction when he formulated a goal for his own country’s intelligentsia: "Let us be Estonians, but let us also become European." ["Olgem eestlased, aga saagem ka eurooplasteks."]

Now, on the threshold of the twentyfirst century, we could set a new goal: "Let us be Europeans, but let us remain also Finns and Estonians."