Excellencies,
Dear Friends.

Today was a very important day for all our countries. You reaffirmed clearly our common desire to speed up the negotiating process and to have a deadline for the completion of negotiations. I am convinced that the message that went out from Tallinn today will find resonance in the capitals of the EU member states. Coming as it does so closely before the informal EU summit meeting in Tampere I believe that your call for the negotiations to be concluded by 2000 or 2001 at the latest will certainly be a subject of discussion there.

I also welcome your clear support for the inclusion of additional countries in the negotiating process. This is an essential signal that we are not just happy to be at the negotiating table but that we wish to have our friends and neighbours join us. The enlargement of the Union is not complete until all countries who qualify for membership under the Copenhagen and Luxembourg criteria are included. This is in the common interest of our countries, it is in the common interest of Europe.

But you did not only talk about enlargement. Institutional reforms, which you also discussed, will affect us just as they will affect the present EU members. In refering to the need for the enlarged EU to promote openness and closeness to its citizens you touch upon a vital nerve. After all, we all will have to put the proposal to join the European Union before our people, in one way or another. And our people will only vote for EU membership if they are convinced that our countries will be full and equal members and that the will and voice of Estonians, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Slovenes and Cypriots is heard in the corridors of Brussels. Most of us, with the fortunate exception of Cyprus, come from a totalitarian past. Our people remember well the times when choice was not allowed and the person didn't count. This experience we bring to the European Union and that is why it is not only our right, but also our duty to help ensure that the human dimension is not lost or forgotten when we talk about building the Europe of the new millenium.

The new Europe must also be strong, it must have an important security dimension. But it must remain a reliable ally and partner for our United States and Canadian friends. The trans-atlantic link must never be forgotten.

But the enlarged European Union must also be a good friend to our neighbours in the East. Ukraine and Russia are very important partners for us today and will remain so tomorrow. None of us wishes to erect new barriers ten years after we brought one the old ones. Ukraine and Russia can rest assured that our future membership of the Union will simply mean that they will have yet more advocates within the councils of the EU.

Dear friends,

I wish to thank you once again for the important work you did today. I am convinced that today's meeting will be remembered as a milestone in the EU's enlargement process.

Let us raise our glasses to our friendship and cooperation, but above all - to Europe!

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