President Higgins' Address to the Media following a meeting with President of Lithuania
Date: Tue 19th Jun, 2018 | 15:30
President, first of all may I thank you for the warmth of your reception, not only on my own behalf, but also on behalf of my wife and all of those travelling with me. Allow me also to say how much I valued our discussions, not only about the past, but also about the future.
Please allow me to say just a few words in our own language, which is 5,000 years old.
Is mór an onóir agus an phléisiúir dom a bheith i Vilnius inniu, agus is mian liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Uachtarán Grybauskaitë as an fíorchaoin fáilte a d'fhear sibh romham féin agus roimh Saidhbhín, agus róimh siúd atá ag taisteal liom.
Tagann mo chuairt ag am speisialta don Liotuáin, agus sibh ag ceiliúradh céad bliain den neamhspleáchais, agus tá súil agam go mbeidh mo chuairt anseo ag neartú an caidreamh idir Éire agus an Liotuáin.
As I have just said in Irish, I very much appreciate having the opportunity of joining in your celebrations of a hundred years since the declaration of independence. I think it was very valuable that we were able to think about the circumstances that led to our struggle for independence, and about how much we have in common, including the cultural pretext that was there prior to our independence.
I spoke in Irish just now, but just to say about the Lithuanians who are living in Ireland – they are very welcome. I think there are 40 schools that teach the Lithuanian language in Ireland, three of which are located in Dublin, for a community that is making a very positive contribution, not only economically but culturally, and to the diversity that characterises contemporary Ireland.
I want to thank you, and through you our colleagues in the European Union, for their understanding and support for the set of complexities that have to be dealt with by Ireland, on foot of the decision by our nearest neighbour to leave the European Union.
We, after all, recall a great moment in 2004, when we had the “Day Of Welcomes” at Áras an Uachtaráin, the home of the President of Ireland, when we welcomed Lithuania and nine other countries to the European family.
We now have to work together to ensure that, in the new circumstances in which our neighbours and Ireland find ourselves, we will be able to manage all these challenges together.
In relation to what we have been discussing regarding the future, and this is a point I have been emphasising in other discussions, that the conversation about the future of Europe must be a conversation that includes not just the interests, but all of the aspirations, and aspirations for a Union, of all 27 member states.
The ten countries who joined the European Union in 2004 had a particular vision of Europe which we offered to them. That vision must be sustained.
I believe that the big events we share together, for example the meeting in Paris where we decided to address climate change and the meeting in New York where we decided on a path towards sustainable development, are frameworks through which the new forms of the European Union, as a region in the global economy, will have to be interpreted.
This new thinking requires entirely different models and that is why, domestically within the European Union, if we are to restore our connection to the European street, we must privilege cohesion, conversion, levelling up, and having a connection between economy, ecology, society and ethics – a connection that I like to call eco-social political economy.
We can work together, and I am sure that we will work together, bringing into existence the new models that we need.
I am also very pleased that our cooperation will include practical measures. While I am here on this visit, we will sign memorandums of understanding between University College Cork and third level institutions here, in relation to education and training, and the university at which I once was a staff member, the National University of Ireland Galway, in relation to biomedicine. These agreements are very important.
In our conversations, as I said, we were able not just to discuss the challenges, but also the great opportunities of the future.
The Europe of the future must enable societies that create inclusive and sustainable opportunities for all. At times, the feeling in the European street is that the citizens of Europe, in all their diversity, are somehow attached to some kind of fiscal model, discussed without full transparency to the European public. It is high time that we returned again to seeing the value of meeting the needs of people; needs that differ and needs that are universal, in relation to food, housing, education, participation, but will have cultural differences too.
I can see it as a very exciting time, when the lead is taken in defining the new Europe by a number of the smaller member countries, who are so close to their communities.
President, you referred to our diaspora. I think there is a great advantage in encouraging a circular migration, in its next phase, which will see the people from both of our countries returning, upskilled, talented and with work experience abroad, contributing and giving leadership in the green economy and the social economy, the redefinition of work, helping to create stable societies.
Madame President, once again I would like to thank you for your warm welcome and your hospitality and to say how pleased I am to be here, and to take part in your centenary celebrations, and to have the opportunity of sharing these conversations with you, in what I hope will be a European Union that we will share, together, and I hope my visit here deepens a strong friendship that is already there between our peoples.
Míle buíochas, go raibh maith agaibh. Thank you.