SIXTH CENTRAL EUROPEAN PRESIDENTIAL CONFERENCE, LVOV (UKRAINE), 14 TO 15 MAY 1999
"EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, REGIONAL CONNECTION AND PROTECTION OF ETHNIC MINORITIES"
Viewpoints from the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Milan Kucan, during the Sixth Central European Presidential Conference

Lvov (Ukraine), 14 May 1999


This subject reflects the European hope that Europe will take advantage of the opportunity that arose through the fall of the Berlin Wall and that it will manage to emerge from its tragic past of war and confrontation toward an optimistic future of peace and cooperation. Kosovo and the Nato intervention have defined human dignity, the reign of human rights as the most fundamental and the highest values in the international sphere, even higher than national sovereignty. We are confronting the task of re-thinking the relationship between these two values, a relationship which is becoming the foundation of a new security world order. The following should be taken into consideration:

1. The basis for understanding the history of Europe and also the current, antagonistic circumstances is European divisions. These divisions – political, economic and other – are a consequence of the distribution, throughout history, of political, economic and social power among the many countries, established through war and violence. Abolishing these divisions is a condition for democratic regulation in united Europe. European integration, regional integration, protection of national minorities, definitive yet open borders are the means for surpassing these divisions. No one can be excluded from the dialogue on Europe's future and the common responsibility towards it.

2. The euphoric belief that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 would spontaneously lead to the overcoming of European political and ideological divisions and, wit h the historical impetus, to the establishing of a democratic European home, has not yet been entirely realised. Even today a democratic and united Europe is more a possibility than an actual fact. It is an opportunity, not to be wasted.

3. The events in the Balkans are strengthening the beliefs of those of us in favour of accelerated expansion of Euro-Atlantic integration, the EU and Nato and also of significant enlargement of the democratic political space and values promoting human dignity and human rights, aimed at eastern and south-eastern Europe. With this we could enable the life of the people and the nations in these parts to be established and founded on the same value system as in the rest of Europe. This would also eliminate the risk of scenarios of global cultural wars and fundamentalist violence using culture, religion and tradition of civilisation as their pretext, which would replace the former bloc divisions.

4. The very essence of military conflict in the Balkans is rooted in unresolved national issues; and also in the manner of resolving these issues, historically lagging behind, through the violent establishing of the nation-state by employing the "blood and soil" principle, ethnic cleansing and deportations of people from other nations. The solution to the Kosovo issue through co-existence between the Albanian majority and the Serb minority in an autonomous political entity should therefore set a precedent; not only for the Balkans.

5. The regional integration in the uniting of Europe is the latent and demonstrative wealth of its multicultural, multiethnic and multispiritual framework. Their function is to establish post-modern nations founded on the equality of their citizens.

6. The success of the United Europe project also depends on settling the position, role and place of the Russian Federation within a common European home in the light of these principles. The idea of regarding Russia as a special partner is at present the closest to a good solution for this - in the future perhaps the key issue.

7. Considering these points, I suggest that in today's discussion we adopt the proposed joint declaration with the already formulated initiative for a European conference on the Balkans. After the cessation of military hostilities and a truce, this initiative would be devoted to abolishing the causes of the Balkan conflicts and to ensuring the political future of this part of Europe.