REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TARTU ESTONIA
“THE EUROPEAN UNION: IRELAND’S EXPERIENCES AND PERSPECTIVES”
Rector, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Terre hommikust {good morning}
It is a great honour for me to be here today as President of Ireland visiting this historic university city and the oldest seat of learning in Estonia. Indeed I believe it was in this city in 1869 that the first National Song Contest took place so perhaps it is Tartu which deserves special praise for Estonia recent success in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Your university has had an illustrious and often turbulent history since its foundation in 1632, undergoing periods of upheaval, vicious suppression and prolonged closure. Many of your predecessors whether students or staff lived through times of great frustration and despair. Were they to see you now they would no doubt be filled with both relief and pride at the indomitable spirit, the relentless commitment to learning and to truth which has ensured that when the remarkable story of Estonia in the 21st century is told this University will be centre stage.
Your University has been a light and a symbol of hope for the Estonian people in their many years of trial and oppression. Your struggle for intellectual integrity has paralleled the struggle of the people of Estonia for their national integrity. Indeed, the role of this University in mobilising efforts to overcome oppression in the late 1980s was crucial in the regaining of Estonian Independence. The struggle for your independence and liberty is now over, and it is heartening to witness how Estonia and the University of Tartu have entered a new phase of self-confidence and security. We in Ireland understand this phase well. This is a truly wonderful moment in a country’s history as a people begin to see their own potential emerge, as they watch their own genius blossom and they finally know the joy and the exhilaration of being in charge of their own destiny. Precisely because we in Ireland have such an instinctive understanding of such a mood and such a moment, we are of course very excited by the prospect of welcoming our Estonian brothers and sisters, already members of our common European family, into the great adventure in respectful partnership and shared prosperity which is the European Union.
Ireland has had its share of history’s struggles. Well into the last century we could accurately be described as a third world country. For several centuries and indeed even up to very recent times our biggest export was our people. They left because they had to, driven out by lack of opportunity at home. Today, however, the story is very different. Now people come to our country because they see us as economically and culturally dynamic and successful. And we are, because this generation has witnessed the transforming power of education. Our schools and universities have been right in the front line as agents of change, giving us the tools with which to craft a better future.
Estonia has gone a very similar journey in harnessing the genius of its people over the past decade of independence. Your spirit and your success have defied the sceptics. Estonia is spoken of with enormous respect throughout our European homeland because of both the extent of the transformation and the democratic way you have accomplished it. So marked and impressive has been your success that in the same decade that you re-established your independence, you were also able to embark upon negotiations to accede to the European Union. Last November the European Commission, in a very positive assessment of the progress made by Estonia in that accession process, judged that you had already achieved a functioning market economy. Your progress has ensured that Estonia is today among the leading candidate countries in terms of success in the enlargement negotiations themselves.
There is, of course, considerable work ahead, both for candidate countries, including Estonia, and for the Member States, to help us to achieve harmonious accession in the short term. Estonia’s commitment to its continued preparations for membership, its considerable store of success so far and the determination of the EU will see us overcome any of the technical difficulties involved. Ireland, for its part, is quite clear: there are no insurmountable obstacles to enlargement.
In expanding the European Union, today’s leaders of Member States and candidate States alike are engaged in a project as ambitious as that undertaken a half century ago by the founders of the Union. The task then was to create a basis for co-operation between former enemies, which would ensure that never again would Europe’s historic enmities lead to global conflict and human disaster. A new generation was going to know the power that comes from partnership instead of the pain that comes from conflict.
In moving forward with enlargement we are all engaged on a project of the utmost importance. It is about restoring a sense of family, of kinship to a divided continent; giving neighbours a chance to truly get to know each other, to grow in respect for each other, to work together in ways that bring shared prosperity to all our peoples; it is about reinforcing democracy and stability in Europe and it is about providing an agreed framework, to which we each subscribe voluntarily, within which each of us as sovereign nations, peoples with different histories, different languages, different perspectives, can pool our talents and maximise our opportunities.
Contemplating the new enlarged EU, I am struck by the tremendous prospects which face the next generation as a very diverse continent, rich in material and cultural wealth, energized by unity of purpose, puts all its collective energies into the service of this great talented European family of peoples. Parts of this family have been worn down by centuries-old barriers of distrust. That distrust has led to wasted lives, wasted hopes. We have seen the past and for many it was not good. Now we see the chance for a very different kind of future, a more humanly decent future, not measured simply in terms of economic benefits, but in the deepening of the quality of life for all citizens of this great continent. When the children of the twenty-second century look back on our times they will, we hope, acknowledge that here was a generation that shaped, freshened and renewed European civilization in ways to be proud of.
Ours is a fast-changing continent. Many of the problems faced by our family of nations, are problems like drug trafficking which transcend territorial borders and which are best tackled together. Many of the problems are deeply human issues, like ethnic hatred, racism, social exclusion, which we are better equipped to deal with through an ongoing and coherent mutual dialogue driven by respect for human rights. The anchor of stability which a broader Union will constitute will help consolidate the democratic achievements of the last decade and allow the EU to develop a better functioning relationship with Russia and the former states of the Soviet Union.
The European Union’s gaze is not just inwards to its own markets, its own club of nations. Our global interdependence is an inescapable obligation and the Union is uniquely well placed to further the fundamental values it stands for by assisting those in greatest need. The European Union is a very significant actor on the world stage, with a potential for conciliation and peace making born out of its own direct experience of replacing a culture of conflict with a culture of consensus.
I am aware that Ireland is sometimes seen as a model for many of the candidate countries, especially the smaller ones. We are recognised as a country which went from relative poverty to shared affluence with our European partners within one generation. We are also viewed as having used the opportunities of European membership well, both in terms of funding and influence on policy. I am happy and indeed privileged to acknowledge Ireland’s success here today. However, as is often the case, the story is more complex than it might first appear.
A generation ago few in Ireland could have even dreamed of unemployment rates of less than 4% and net inward migration. Today both are a reality. We are rightly proud of the achievements of Ireland’s flexible economic model within Europe and the world - a flexibility which has unleashed the genius of our people, so long accustomed to seeing themselves through a neo-colonial prism as second rate and third best.
Our membership of the European Community and later the European Union has been a crucial factor in liberating ourselves from this mind-set. It has also been crucial in providing Ireland with the opportunities to use our own abilities to finally provide enough employment and a fair living standard for our people. Membership has been a catalyst for attracting direct foreign investment to Ireland, especially from the United States, thereby generating a range of contemporary economic links to complement the historic links established as a result of generations of emigration in less prosperous times. Today, Ireland has become a bridgehead between the two continents, looking across our western seaboard to the United States, while simultaneously refreshing our ancient ties with the rest of Europe through our contemporary participation in the EU.
In reflecting on our European experience today, I am very conscious that Estonia has many parallels with Ireland. Neither of us aspires to be dominant actors on the world or regional stage in the sense of military power. Neither of us has, to date, discovered some abundant physical national resource, which we can sell with ease onto a world market. However, we both have shown through adversity and challenge that our people are capable of using their natural talents to achieve excellence. What we need are the opportunities, opportunities that we in Ireland have found within the EU and which we know will increase exponentially within an expanded European Union.
Ireland’s recent economic success is clearly and inextricably linked with membership of the EU, but European membership did not of itself provide the answers to our economic problems. Successive Irish Governments have done much on their own initiative to exploit the opportunities of membership and improve our economic prospects. These included the establishment of a transparent and balanced corporate tax regime, an effective social partnership approach to the resolution of wage disputes and other social issues, and the promotion of a stable macroeconomic environment. Above all, however, the provision of a well-educated labour force coupled with a consistently practical, pro-active and dynamic approach to the promotion of Ireland as a suitable business environment for modern, high-tech industries, led to the rapid economic growth and falling unemployment rates, which we have now experienced for nearly a decade. Today, as a result of those efforts, we are proud of the fact that we have exceeded the EU average GDP per capita and will likely become a net contributor to the EU budget within this decade.
A fear which existed at the time of our accession to the then EEC, and even afterwards, was that Ireland, as a small and peripheral nation, would be swallowed up by a huge European process in which our interests and identity would hardly be noticed, or even undermined. We had already been members, indeed unwilling and involuntary members, of a political union with Great Britain for centuries. Our experience of empire and colonialism had left us more than slightly cynical and sceptical of Unions, so those fears of being overwhelmed culturally and politically were understandable. But our experience has been quite the opposite and our people’s consistent support for the Union acknowledges that this Union is different. Joining the EU was our chance to exercise the sovereign power we had sacrificed so much to obtain, to join a voluntary association of neighbours, to recalibrate the old weary relationships and replace them with a partnership of equals. The European Union has provided an ideal showcase for Ireland, economically, politically, socially and culturally. We have grown in self-confidence and in success. We see ourselves as achievers. We are seen as achievers. Far from being overwhelmed culturally we are experiencing a flood of exceptional talent in every area of the arts, both traditional and contemporary. And what is more, that cohort of modern talent has the self-confidence and the level of excellence to compete comfortably on the most competitive international scene.
Today’s renaissance at the beginning of the twenty-first century echoes an earlier renaissance in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when Irish writers and artists experienced a surge of creative energy galvanised by outstanding intellectual leadership. A very similar renaissance was underway during the same period here in Estonia, characterised by literary movements such as the Young Estonia Movement. That movement’s slogan was to be prophetic: “Let us be Estonians, but let us also become Europeans”.
To be Estonians is to have your own unique story, language, traditions, music, poems, drama, memories, literature, perspectives. To be European is to bring all those things that are uniquely Estonian as gifts right to the heart of Europe and to accept as gifts in return the unique personalities of our European neighbours. Put those stories together and we all become much more than the sum of our parts.
Through Ireland’s membership of the European Union we have come to see ourselves very differently. Our horizons are wider, our markets are more extensive, our problematic relationships with Great Britain have matured into a more neighbourly and friendly collegiality out of which has blossomed a peace process in Northern Ireland - a process which we trust and believe will deliver a future of peace and justice.
The very values that underpin the European Union - peaceful resolution of conflict, respect for and celebration of diversity, partnership and equality - these, underpin the Good Friday Agreement which the Governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland achieved in April 1998. The Agreement is a watershed in Ireland’s history - an opportunity for a fresh start. Significant political differences exist but there is an absolute commitment to resolve them by exclusively peaceful means.
Building peace is fundamentally about building trust and it is a fraught, challenging journey but one that takes us to a very worthwhile destination. There are many ups and downs for the legacy of mistrust and hurt goes deep, but we are sustained by the encouragement of our friends, particularly in the European Union and in the broader European family. It has mattered greatly to us that our neighbours, among them our friends here in Estonia, wished us well and willed us on to build and deliver our vision of a peaceful, just and inclusive society.
Rector, ladies and gentlemen, I have enjoyed greatly this chance today to give you a flavour, from an Irish perspective, of the positive future an enlarged EU will bring to Estonia, to Ireland and to Europe as a whole. Some weeks ago I took a few days to tend my very neglected garden. I am the only interested gardener in the family and there was such a huge amount of work to be done that I was dreading it. I knew the task was too much for one person. But then two volunteers came to the rescue and not only did we have the benefit of three pairs of hands but we had that extra bit of enthusiasm and imagination that comes from working as a team of diverse talents focussed on a common outcome. Between us we transformed the garden. Now we look forward with excitement as the results of our joint endeavours take root and begin to blossom. The garden looked terrific the day we finished it but it will look even better in the seasons ahead.
It is the same with the European Union. Working together we can transform the landscape of the future, we can energise each other, learn from each other and release talents which would otherwise be still-born. Why? – so that every man, woman and child can have a life of dignity, of choice and opportunity and can experience in the words of your poet, Jaan Kaplinski,
... “ a little bit of common everyday happiness, a feeling you were lucky to have lived this day…”
I hope that Ireland’s experience of the EU will prove to be a source of inspiration, encouragement and reassurance as the people of Estonia embark on the next chapter of your history as a member of the European family.
This great university institution as a powerhouse of intellectual leadership and a centre of gravity will find a warm welcome from the European Union University community, for you have much to contribute to the knowledge grid of the European Union. That knowledge is our truest treasure, our surest foundation for tomorrow’s peace and prosperity.
Thank you.