Brussels EU speech 1 (1999)

Vaiva was Vice Minister of Education when she gave this address to the European Union.

1999 balandþio 15-16, Brussels, ES

Esteemed members of the European Commission delegation, or perhaps I should say esteemed colleagues. I am in a sense the “odd man out” at this meeting, for I think it likely that I am the only person present who was born and raised outside of Europe. Although I am a Lithuanian, I have only recent come to understand that I am also a European. This realisation has been a revelation to me, since the European dimension of education, of culture, of history has come late to me and therefore come as a gift which is renewed every day as I discover Europe in my work, in my friends and in my country. My colleagues in the Lithuanian delegation are in a different position entirely. They have been both Lithuanians and Europeans every day of their lives. They have always known that Lithuania has been a piece of the European puzzle throughout this millennium and is integral to Europe now. As I have come to live in Lithuania, to work at the Ministry of Education and Science and to engage with its processes of democratic growth and educational reform I have learned how deep-seated these processes are in my country, how intertwined with the evolution of European structure and European thought.

Just as every ancient culture does, we have much to be proud of as well as some things to regret. We regret our absence from the daily life and natural development of the European network of national connections for fifty years. But we are proud that we are actively in the vanguard of creating a European tradition in our educational system now; a European tradition which is purely our own, which has its roots in the Lithuania of Medaeval Europe, which continued to blossom in pre-war independent Lithuania and which we claim now as the basis for building a modern system for teaching and learning in a free and democratic society of the twenty-first century.

Our population rightfully demands an educational system that gives us a level playing field with all of Europe. We need to achieve and maintain European standards of quality and of accessibility to education for our own sake. We need to open doors and create an open house of education for our European neighbours for our own sake. We have known this for a long time. In 1773 the Grand Duchy of Lithuania established one of the first Ministries of Education in all of Europe. This Ministry (Edukacinë Komisija) put into motion reforms on a state level and sweeping scale. This Ministry declared that “Education is our tool for building a modern nation”. And our Ministry understood that a modern nation cannot be closed in on itself. Without a dialogue of ideas with its neighbours it withers.

Lithuania has a tradition of paying attention to European thought in educational matters. In particular, French reformers found willing, critically thinking ears in Lithuania. The works of Jean - Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot found their way into our educational philosophy. Rousseau was invited to come and live in Lithuania, in a sylvan setting, and to write for Lithuanian schools.

That was a long time ago. But Lithuania is today still in the front ranks of nations in systemic educational reform. Our results are good and our goals are set high. One of these goals is to fully enter a common European educational space. After all, the journey to Europe is a return to our birthright and long-standing heritage. The end result will broaden the common cultural territory of Western and Central Europe, will deepen the foundations of true European Stability and spur human development, which knows no borders.

Whenever Jean-Jacque Rousseau’s intellectual descendants are ready, they are welcome to come and live in Lithuania, to write, to help us build our school system, to provoke our ways of thinking.

Meanwhile, we hope that you will help us through the process we engage in today. This meeting is the second round of deliberations, during which we expect to explain what Lithuania has decided to do and has done during the year since the first multilateral negotiating session. We will explain what still needs to be accomplished in order for Lithuania to become a full-fledged member of the European Union.

We have presented a completed Screening A-List, which should confirm that Lithuania is resolved and ready to undertake all of its European Union obligations from the date of admission.

Agenda 2000, the Opinion of the European Commission made plain the relative ease of transition for Lithuania in the field of education upon entry to the Union. We are gratified by this conclusion, but we also bear a great responsibility for the efficient management of the adoption of European Union Acquis Communitaire. We need to ensure that this process will be as smooth and rapid as possible. We have at our disposal, and at your disposal, half a day’s time, during which we will try to make clear our position and our situation, basing our presentation upon the experience gained at last year’s meeting.

I would like to present the policy - makers and experts that comprise our delegation...

I myself am Vaiva Vëbraitë, vice-minister of Education and Science, and must admit that I am in Brussels for the first time and expect to learn a great deal from my colleagues and from you.

Without further ado, I would like to give the floor to Mister Arûnas Plikðnys, who will address the question of migrant workers. Of course, we also have brought to the meeting some documents to leave with you in the expectation that they will help create a broader context, a more complete view of the changes that Lithuanian education is undergoing.