Mr. President,Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is for me a special privilege, but no easy task, to deliver a speech in honour of someone who has already received so many accolades and international awards for his achievements as a writer, as a film-maker and as President of Estonia.

Today, the Liberal International has the honour of awarding you the Prize for Freedom for your political work in guiding your country back to independence and for your personal contribution in securing Estonia's return to Europe.

I know that you have always opposed the word "return", because, as you rightly point out, Estonia in fact had no need to return to Europe - it had always been an integral part of our continent. In your view, and I fully agree, Europe is a spiritual and cultural space rather than a geographical concept. Anyone who, like yourself, draws on Tacitus to prove his point, does indeed have arguments in his favour that are difficult to refute.

Mr. President,

I still have very vivid recollections of our first meeting in December 1991 at the F.D.P. parliamentary group's Christmas celebrations in Bonn. Estonia had regained its independence just a few weeks previously, and at the time you were Estonia's foreign minister and I the Chairman of the Free Democratic Party. A great deal of water has since flowed under the bridge, both in your country and in Europe.

Estonia has initiated a bold programme of reforms and is seen as a model of liberal government. Indeed, two Estonian parties have meanwhile become members of the Liberal International. There is a broad consensus in your country on the fundamental thrust of economic policy, foreign policy and external trade policy. You deserve most of the credit for this. As Foreign Minister but also in your capacity as President you have endeavoured to ensure that Estonia is not deflected from this path. Your popularity in Estonia and abroad is an expression of the high regard in which your political work is held. Time and again, you have taken a personal stance on major political issues. Although this has not always met with approval in Estonia, it has had a beneficial impact on the political debate. Your reelection in 1996 is testimony to the persuasive force of your arguments.

From experience both in Germany and in other countries undergoing periods of upheaval, we know how important it is for ordinary citizens to have credible public figures from whom they can take heart. Both within and outside your country you have become a symbol of reform, not in the same way as Germany's first Federal President, Theodor Heuss, who was generally known as "Papa Heuss", but, as a prominent Estonian politician once put it, as a likeable, dominant father-in-law.

The treaty on the withdrawal of Soviet forces, which you negotiated in Moscow, did not meet with approval from all quarters in Estonia. But on 31 August 1994, the Soviet troops left your country, thereby finally marking the end of the Second World War for your country. The length of the ratification process in the Estonian parliament showed the degree of resistance. But you successfully held your ground and thus set a milestone on the road to normalization in relations between Estonia and Russia.

Your biography reflects the course of European history. Born as the son of a diplomat during Estonia's first period of independence, you lived for many years in Berlin and Paris. In 1941, following the Soviet occupation of Estonia, you and your family were deported to Siberia. Only in 1946 were you given the right to return to your home country. I use the term "given the right" because it aptly sums up the contempt for individual freedom shown by a system against which you always fought. As a liberal, you were at all times guided in your actions by the conviction that each individual enjoys inalienable basic rights. I will not forget your speech to mark the 5th anniversary of the reunification of Germany in Berlin on 3 October 1995 in which you described freedom as the most valuable good of all. We greatly appreciate your contribution to the abolition of the death penalty in Estonia.

During the period of occupation, you worked tirelessly as a writer and film-maker to help preserve the identity of your people.

You used your professional contacts in the not always unpolitical field of art and culture to draw international attention to the fate of the Estonian people.

You succeeded in exemplary fashion.

As a former student of history and languages at the venerable University of Dorpat, founded in 1632 by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, you also embody a modern and outward-looking Estonia. In your country, one would probably say that your life has been infused by the "spirit of Tartu". Tartu can indeed look back on a long liberal tradition. No less a person than Klinger, who gave the Storm and Stress period at the end of the 18th century its name, was the dean of this university for more than 17 years.

The desire for freedom and independence which distinguished the Storm and Stress generation has been preserved in Estonia down to the present day. Far less applicable to the situation today is an observation by the Russian minister of culture and education Uvarov, who, in the 1830s, travelled to Estonia on the orders of the Tzar to investigate the subversive activities of liberally minded students in Tartu. He reported back that although there were indeed some wicked rascals in Tartu the students there were wholly unpolitical. No, down to the present day the spirit of Tartu has always been a political one as well. You, Mr. President, are the best example.

Modern Estonia is an open and outward-looking country. You yourself speak five languages and have translated works by Remarque, Green and Solzhenitsyn. And in this way, too, you have set an example for the younger generation in particular. It would also seem that your affinity for modern information technology has played a part in the boom experienced by the computer industry in Estonia. As you yourself have said, this is more than a question of technology.

The age of the new media is a highly political age in which information of all kinds can be made available world-wide in a matter of seconds. It is bringing us closer to the open civil society to which we as Liberals aspire and which Estonia has already done so much to achieve. And I may point out, Mr. President, that the Liberal International is also on the Internet - you might when your have time look up our home page.

Mr. President,

we are here today to express our gratitude to you by awarding you the Prize for Freedom. We Liberals are grateful to you for showing us how much there is to gain from steadfast adherence to basic Liberal principles. And thus, in conclusion, I would like to come back to the question you raised in your keynote address on 3 October 1995, namely whether the principles underpinning the community of shared Liberal values have been confirmed once and for all or whether they will soon confront a fresh test of their worth.

The answer, I believe, is that our liberal principles must constantly prove their worth.

Last year, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, our Liberal colleague Vargas Llosa warned, and I quote: "Since in the history of humankind nothing is definitive or determined by fate, we must be aware that the progress we have made in fostering a culture of freedom over the last few decades is not irreversible." We must indeed be aware of this at all times, and it is good to know that in you, Mr. President, we have a friend at our side.

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