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Speech by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Audronius Ažubalis at the roundtable discussion on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the restoration of the Independence of Estonia “From 1990 to 2030. How well do the lessons of the past 20 years equip us to face the challenges of the next 20?”. Tallinn, 20 August 2011

• Let me point out several challenges that to my mind have been the focus point around which the political agenda in the region developed in last 20 years. Challenges that to my eye will continue into the upcoming decades.
  
• The first challenge was the democratic and human rights values. We have seen consolidation of our own democracies, faced the democracy and human rights related challenges in our neighborhood. We have witnessed that the urge for respect for human rights is prominent not only in Europe but also in the Arab world and beyond. We see democracy making a significant come-back to the international agenda. I see no way how values could lose their importance in national, regional and global politics in the next 20 years. We have to overcome our own tendency to apply double standards for democracy and human rights in regard to various political regimes both present and historic; we have to come up with new efficient strategies of dealing with current undemocratic regimes. And we have to keep the historic memory about the cruelty of totalitarian regimes alive. This is the only way to sustain solidarity in Europe and with the nations that are today suffering suppression by undemocratic leaders.
  
• The second focal point has been energy, in terms of energy security, energy efficiency, and energy safety. It is an unquestionable priority of the next two decades.
  
• Thirdly, political, economic and security integration into the European and Nordic-Baltic regional framework have been key priority of the two previous decades for the Baltic countries. The upcoming decades should be marked with consolidation of competitive regional advantages, and further integration of the Nordic-Baltic region in economic, societal and political terms.
  
• Now allow me to elaborate on each of the challenges mentioned above.
  

1. Memory of totalitarian crimes and solidarity of the EU

• Oppression and extermination of people, persecution of political opponents in Burma, Middle East or South Sudan are qualified as crimes against humanity and condemned by the international democratic community, like they should be. However, sometimes crimes of the totalitarian communist regimes in the XX century are neglected, despite recognition that statute of limitations to war crimes and crimes against humanity does not apply, and the persons involved in such crimes cannot avoid the punishment. And it should not be like that.
  
• The principle of justice should assure a just treatment of victims of every totalitarian regime, and proper prevention of all international crimes. Alongside, the denial of every international crime should be condemned to prevent rehabilitation and rebirth of totalitarian ideologies.
  
• As you all know, Lithuania has been promoting the memory of totalitarian crimes for 20 years now. But recent events in Austria, when M. Golovatov, former commander of KGB special forces, suspected for directly causing deaths of 14 unarmed citizens, was released, have clearly demonstrated how much still needs to be done.
  
• Lithuania is disappointed by the actions of responsible Austrian officials. Austria’s selective view to the applicability of legal acts of the European Union does not conform to the core principles of EU – equality of member states, loyal cooperation, and strict observance of international law. Release of M. Golovatov is a breach of international law and legal acts of the European Union.
  
• I would like to thank our dear neighbors – Latvia and Estonia for their support. The EU is founded on values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. These values should be common to every person or state especially and should be a solid basis for our mutual trust and solidarity.
  
• We expect that the bilateral Commission will enable an adequate evaluation of this case and draw lessons to be learned from for all EU member states.
  
• Moreover, we believe that lack of understanding of our common past was among the reasons for this disappointing event. Therefore, we will constantly raise and support initiatives aiming at informing and educating the public about Europe’s totalitarian past.
  

2. Energy security

• Some of the today’s challenges have been there for 20 years. We are still dependent from a single energy supplier. This makes us exceptionally vulnerable in terms of energy security.
  
• But we now see that energy supply may be not only a challenge for security but for our safety and national security as well. Many times we have expressed our worries about two unsafe nuclear projects being developed in our neighborhood – one in Kaliningrad, which is located in between two EU members and the second - in Belarus, which is only 50 km from our capital. Requirements of international safety conventions are violated: despite the fact, that international environmental impact assessment process of both NPPs is still open, construction have already started on the sites, selected by unknown criteria.
  
• Lithuania is seriously concerned about the recent incident in newly constructed Leningrad-2 nuclear power plant when the mounted fixtures collapsed. Leningrad-2 NPP is a prototype of Kaliningrad nuclear power plant, based on the same technology and the mode of construction. This is a kind of concerns we are having – technologies that are insecure beyond neglect.
  
• Our situation is far from simple today, but we have already taken significant steps forwards in terms of ensuring energy security of the region. Implementation of our common projects in the energy field – NordBalt (Baltic-Swedish link), EstLink2 (Estonian-Finish link), LitPolLink, Lithuanian-Polish gas interconnection and others is necessary to ensure the Baltic States’ energy independence. The Visaginas nuclear power plant is another strategic regional project to be completed by 2020, with participation of three Baltic States and Poland. This major regional project accords with the common goal to operate synchronously with European energy systems.
  

3. Nordic and Baltic cooperation

• It is a great coincidence that the topic of today’s discussion corresponds fully with the project of the Government of Lithuania entitled as “Lithuania 2030” – a new development strategy for Lithuania.
  
• One main conclusion in this strategy is that Lithuania and other Baltic states could and should be more oriented to the Nordic countries. It should be a deliberate objective of our countries to have an integrated, prosperous, successful, politically and economically consolidated Nordic-Baltic region, consisting of five Nordic and three Baltic countries.
  
• We enjoy remarkable cooperation within NB8, with Finland at its steering wheel this year. I am aware that the Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen intends to open NB8 conference on the 30th of August in Helsinki, right after the meeting of the NB8 Foreign Ministers. The discussion on political and economic relations between Nordic and Baltic countries will serve as a highlighted retrospect of the cooperation and also as a benchmark for the next 20 years of the region.
• Lithuania takes over the coordination of NB8 next year. We also intend to hold a high rank event in April (23 or 27th) in Vilnius – a summit of Presidents and Prime ministres.
  
• Our priority during the NB8 coordination will of course remain the implementation the NB8 report and its recommendations.
  
• But we also intend to initiate some new projects. Firstly, the creation of a common informational space between Nordic and Baltic countries. It could increase levels of knowledge about each other, and bring it to daily life, with joint TV programs, cinema exchange and so on.
  
• We also intend to bring more attention to the enhanced cooperation of the Northern Europe and the US since we will coordinate E-Pine events next year as well.