A conference “Responsible Politics in Europe – 50 Years after Robert Schuman” took place in Budapest recently. It was dedicated to the memory of the famous French Christian Democrat politician, who is considered to be one of the fathers of the European integration. On this occasion, representatives of the European Commission, key speakers of the Robert Schuman Institute, and young European politicians were invited to the capital of Hungary.
Robert Schuman’s name in the history of European integration is of equal importance with Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasperi, Paul Henri Spaak, and Jean Monnet. But often it is Schuman who is called “the first of the best.”
Basically, his activity is the start of the new political epoch. When the world was standing on the verge of the third world war, he (as the French foreign minister and prime minister, and later, the president of the European Parliament) fought for unification of Europe in peace and freedom. The Schuman Declaration, with which he called for uniting coal and steel sectors of France, Germany, and other European countries, and passing over their management to the new supranational structure, is considered to be the starting point on the way to creating the European Federation. Later an institute was founded in Budapest, which has been working on the development of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe for 20 years.
Despite the fact that Ukraine is not a member of the European Union yet, our fellow compatriots also have access to the Schuman Institute courses. Obviously, the EU is interested that there should not be a striking contrast between member states and neighbor states. By the way, Schuman Institute cooperates closely with the Ukrainian Institute for Political Education, whose current director Andrii Strannikov is one of the Schuman Institute first graduates. In general, former participants of the Schuman Institute seminars in different European countries have reached the level of ministers and MPs.
The scale of this year’s conference organized by the Shuman Institute strikes not only with the amount and quality of people invited for discussions, but with the uniqueness of its format and climate. Boundaries between speakers and listeners are erased here, because the latter often direct the flow of discussion by raising questions which are important for their own countries. Of course, the presence of outstanding and honored figures and their open attitude towards the participants as members of one big family create a truly constructive atmosphere and at the same time make the event more special.
The main topics of discussions are responsibility, born by politicians and key public figures, and also challenges of upcoming years in the context of the European Parliament elections in 2014. Also, speakers urged the community to come back to those values which are more and more forgotten with every year.
Hungarian Minister of Human Resources Zoltan Balog drew the audience’s attention to the fact that the original concept of the EU is based on Christian values. According to him, a successful European state cannot develop in any way other than following the principles of the Kingdom of God: “In cultural sense, none of those who do not know the Ten Commandments or what is celebrated on the Whitsun Day, can be considered European. Unfortunately, during the past few years, European culture and intellectual and spiritual roots have been significantly weakened or even completely destroyed by the supranational economic factors,” Balog summed up.
Vice president of the European Parliament Alejo Vidal-Quadras shares this standpoint. He sees his main goal in bringing back the EU to the core European values and key points of Schuman Declaration, written in 1950. When quoting a phrase from it that “Europe will not be built in one instant or according to a single plan. It will be created by specific achievements, which will take place thanks to solidarity,” he emphasized the need of search of common values and goals in the modern world.
The participants of the discussion admitted that Europe has moved so much from what the first fighters for unification were proclaiming, that today Schubert’s standpoint that it is Christian values that have to serve as basis for a state’s development would cause a stir, especially in the media. The politician would be accused of not being politically correct and would forever be considered a sectarian, who hopelessly fell behind the 21st century.
“Today, in the eyes of some European politicians, Christian ideas seem to be old-fashioned. Besides, key notions change their political context. Before, liberalism as well as nationalism meant fight for freedom, but now these notions changed their meaning completely. For me as a politician this is a shocking experience. Liberalism now demands going with the flow, and if a politician does not want to compromise and is concentrated on traditional values, liberalism will proclaim him dangerous and will try to silence him,” said Hungarian Minister of State for European Affairs Eniko Gyori.
The “Ukrainian question” was not left unnoticed by the speakers, as well. In particular, the signing of the Association Agreement in the context of Yulia Tymoshenko’s case was discussed. And even though the former prime minister’s imprisonment does not help Ukraine in any way during the final stage of negotiations with the EU, judging by the speakers’ words, the audience could make a conclusion that Europe’s priorities are somewhat changing and its principle standpoint is growing weaker.
“Ukraine is our neighbor and we are convinced that it belongs in Europe. We have always worked on the improvement of our relations. Of course, we have encountered success and failures on this path. But we started looking at this situation from another perspective. We put a question in this way: what is better for Ukrainian people – to keep the country at distance all the time, or try to send positive signals, when we see positive changes in return? Is it right to keep Ukrainians hostages of one situation? Will this make people happier in any way? It seems to me that those countries that are not too interested in improving relations between Ukraine and the EU use this situation as a justification of doing nothing. However, I do not think this is fair political play. Personally, I think that if there are positive steps (even if they are far from being perfect), we have to do more. I do not know what the final decision of the EU summit will be, but on this stage we are close to signing the Association Agreement with Ukraine,” Gyori said.
Former president of the European Commission Jacques Santer expressed his personal attitude towards this matter: he had experience of cooperation with Ukraine, when our country was given huge amounts of money in the 1990s. All this money was gone in the abyss of corruption. He understands that it happened during Kuchma’s presidency, but that attitude towards Ukraine is still strong in him. But at the same time, he completely agrees to Gyori’s position, that the doors should be open when there is a noticeable evolution of politics and politicians, like it is supposedly happening in Ukraine today.”
