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President of the Republic On a Festive Dinner Hosted By the President of the Federal Republic of Germany On November 7, 2000, at the Bellevue Residence
07.11.2000

Dear Federal President Johannes Rau,
Dear Mrs. Christina Rau,
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen!

First of all, let me thank you for your friendly words. In the Federal Republic of Germany, we have always been aware of the friendship of the people of Germany.

My state visit intends to underline the importance of these feelings. We have come a long way since the reunion of Germany and the restoration of Estonia's independence. Our relations are good, because we share the need to enlarge the European Union, the home of our shared values.

Estonia, the people of Estonia and Estonian culture have for fifty centuries been part of Europe. We lived in our country and spoke our language on the coasts of the Baltic Sea already at the time when the first thatched roofs were being built on the huts of ancient Rome. We traded with West, East, North and South. The whirlwinds of the great migration of peoples left Estonia untouched, but the emanations of different cultures did not. For some time, Estonia was the northernmost region in the world where land was cultivated and grain sold to the neighbours.

These ancient fields are still visible today. They are part of our identity, so self-evident that we have never asked ourselves: what are the traces that Estonia and the Estonian grain have left in the ancient history of Northern Europe or, let us say, Schleswig-Holstein. Or in the period of the Holy Roman Empire, where Estonia was the northernmost province. We were open, we endured and survived only because we have been open and are open again today to what the politicians call by a somewhat mysterious name - ''the common values of Europe''. In Estonia this means the merging of our ancient law and the German people's law, which has, at different times, given Estonia a legal framework, an inner dignity and an iron-hard faith in a person's rights and in justice. Our cities have the Hanseatic silhouettes so well known to you, but they are still Estonian cities, as they were built of the Baltic Sea limestone with Estonian skills. This year is the 475th anniversary of the Estonian book, but our first books and newspapers were printed in black letter, and the books were printed in Germany. The philosophy of national awakening reached Estonia through German pastors, who had had to submit the written text of a sermon both in German and in Estonian when applying for the pastorate. On the seventeenth century, under the Swedish crown, Estonians became literate, and on the nineteenth century, Estonian oral folklore, which had so far been maintained in the living memory of the people, was first committed to paper: millions of verses, maybe the largest collection in the world, became part of history; it therefore also became a hope written down on paper, and a political programme. The first manufactures of Northern Europe became the first factories of Northern Europe and also the centres of social democracy of Northern Europe. Ever since then, the striving for justice and fraternity, as well as responsibility to the future was added to the affinity of our cultures.

We are not surprised by the fact that comes as a surprise to Germans, namely that the first monument to Friedrich Schiller was erected in 1813 in Estonia, and not in Germany. The same storm, the same striving (Sturm und Drang) in two different languages. Our hardest times and greatest losses were born of the false ideologies of totalitarianism, of the Soviet socialism and the national socialism. The ideological sources of the two were different, but the consequences were the same: Estonia lost a quarter of her citizens and was bound behind the iron curtain for decades. Our struggle for a better future is also united by a common anniversary: on August 31, 1994, the last Red Army soldiers - who themselves were both the bearers and the victims of totalitarianism - left both Estonia and Germany; and on that day, liberation from the shadows of the past was celebrated both here in Berlin and in Tallinn. We have never forgotten the brotherly congratulations of the German Reichstag delegate von Stetten, which he brought from Berlin to Tallinn on that day, and which opened a new chapter in the history of both the big and the small country.

The content of this new chapter is the return of Europe to the coasts of the Baltic Sea. Not Estonia's return to Europe, because Estonia has never left Europe. Estonia has been faithful and strong, it was Europe who, for different reasons, was weak and unfaithful. Europe's return to the coasts of the Baltic Sea also has a name: the enlargement of the European Union to Estonia, NATO enlargement to Estonia. These two goals have been the content of the last ten years in Estonia, and Estonians can be proud to be fast in pacing towards these goals. We feel even twofold pride, as the speed and capability of our progress has not been supported by West Germany - we had no West Germany - but by our own political will, which has drawn its power from our shared cultural space and Estonia's painful historical experiences.

We have renewed Estonia, we have built Estonia into a country abiding by the rule of law, a country with European legislation, more liberal than Germany, a country that has been met with trust, recognition, and admiration. The more bitter do I feel saying that Germany's direct investments to the Estonian economy only constitute 3% of the total amount of the capital invested to Estonia. Behind the iron curtain, a quarter of a century ago, I wrote a book on the history of discovering the Baltic Sea, and now I feel that I should write another - a book on the discovery of the Republic of Estonia, for the German economy. We in Estonia have come a long way.

As for the level of our information technology, we are the best in Central Europe and in the first half of the list of the European Union, from receivers we have become the givers of assistance; we have built up a strong banking system, we have completed the privatisation, and what fascinates me most: we are building. In addition to modern banks, we are building modern private homes and export them also to Germany. Therefore, dear German friends, Estonia cannot come to terms with the weakening of political will in the European Union. We want quick and clear answers to the question: when can Estonia accede to the European Union. Estonia - allow me to emphasise - will be ready in the year 2002. And please understand me right: so far, all unions whose sole purpose has been the union as such, have disintegrated. Only the unions who have the purpose of enlarging and engaging new creative powers can survive.

Estonia can fulfil her tasks in the European Union with dignity.

This is Estonia's contribution to a strong and stable Europe, the contribution that we can offer only now, because of the iron curtain. This is Europe's debt to the twentieth century. This, dear guests, is the path that we walk together.

Mr. President, Mrs. Christina Rau, let me in the name of the Republic of Estonia, the Estonian delegation, my spouse and myself wish you success, prosperity, and moral satisfaction on this path that we walk together.

Let us raise our glasses to the President of Germany and Mrs. Christina Rau, to the happiness of Germany and the prosperity of the European Union!

 

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