It is my honour to assist the opening of this year's European Cultural Month. The significance of this cultural event is certainly wider than can be staked out by the sound of the violin that will soon be heard here. After all, it signifies the trust of big Europe in little Slovenia. The sound of the violin will definitely reach far beyond the ears of those present: defying the acoustic laws they will be heard in every corner of the continent. This trust in Slovenia will no doubt be audible and perceptible even as far away as the Baltic Sea, and on behalf of my people I would like to aver it here and now, at the opening of the European Cultural Month, as the lovely Ljubljana is becoming a cultural capital of Europe for the next two months.

Estonia and Slovenia are geographical poles at the ends of the axis of Central Europe reaching from the Baltic to the Adriatic. The edge of that zone has been marked for a thousand years by an essential cultural boundary separating the West from the East, from the Byzantine sphere of influence. In history the cultural boundary has more often than not turned into a simultaneous political wall of partition. Wars have been waged to shift that wall. Its materialized relics, witnesses of bygone times, can still be seen by tourists in the center of the city of Berlin.

The dividing lines on the map of Europe, however, have ceased to be realities of today. When we speak of Europe today, we first and foremost mean our common home.

The most important criteria of a European home are its cultural diversity, with the policy of levelling and intrusion ruled out, as well as its openness, receptivity and respect for peculiarities of other cultures. The very existence of Europe in the true sense of the word can only be meaningful as long as we can speak of the separate cultural existence of its parts which blend to produce a certain harmony. The European harmony consists of a number of ethnic-cum-cultural units. Most of these units are small, but together they add up to that large multidimensional aggregate which indeed represents the essential strength of European culture. This variegated European fabric, or palette, has its own historical logic behind it. And our two small nations - any small nations! - have also gained a regular place here with their cultural histories.

In order to maintain the european mosaic, we must, paradoxically, integrate! Indeed we can only speak of integration if the mosaic is preserved, otherwise we would speak of cultural destruction or assimilation. As we all know, without our own states our peoples have no future. At the same time we must recognize that our states do not have a future outside of unions of states. The nations in today's world generally face the two forces majeures - the world becoming increasingly mosaic on the one hand, and processes of integration on the other - and our task is to keep these two tendencies in balance.

At poles as we Slovenia and Estonia are, we are drawn closer by historical parallels. All the cultural awakening as nations, beginning with the first books printed in Estonian or Slovenian in the 16th century through to the final political awakening last century, has passed in your country as well as in ours in parallel, regarding both time and the similar cultural environment under German-minded domination. And finally, as a logical sequel, the almost simultaneous liberation - although it was not the first time for Estonia - occurred at the beginning of the 1990s, when the political dividing lines in the center of Europe were erased. This was very quickly followed by the mutual recognition of each other's states.

There is another parallel that I am especially delighted to point out today: in both countries pivotal to the liberation process of the Nineties were writers and other people of the arts, to whom we will also pass the thick end of the stick as the festival month opens today. I believe we as presidents can do so with an easy conscience here today: we know that people who can create works of art can also, if need be, create states.

Pianists and penmen are safer producers of European security that politicians with their speeches. We can soon be convinced of that again as the concerts begin. There is no need for me as an Estonian to remind you here in Slovenia that singing, mass community singing is capable of it.

So let us remain colored pebbles in this European program and disseminate the understanding that the inner diversity, multiformity of Europe bears no inherent conflict, because what really is of interest to Man is just differences. And let us look hopefully to the future, because as long as culture survives there will be Europe, as long as culture survives there will be Estonia, and as long as culture survives there will be Slovenia. As long as culture survives there will be Man.

I wish Ljubljana success in hosting this important event; I wish you a successful Cultural Month.

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