Valdas Adamkus, President of the Republic of Lithuania
The State of the Republic — and Her Future
Valdas Adamkus is the President of the Republic of Lithuania. This was the Annual Address to the Seimas delivered on April 20th, 2000. The speech can also beread on the web at www.president.lt, which is maintained by the Office of the President of the Republic of Lithuania.
Distinguished Chairman of the Seimas,
The High Seimas,
My Dear Fellow Citizens,
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For the second time I address you to share my views on the current situation and the tasks to be fulfilled jointly to our benefit and to the benefit of our children. The year 1999 displayed our accomplishments of the first decade of independence and exposed the complex problems faced by our society and the State.
The Lithuanian economy, even though having suffered huge losses, has passed the test of the Russian crisis. Regrettably, we, the authorities of the State, failed to pass it. Not only did we fail to form a realistic state budget last year but also did not adjust it in time. Only in the face of an obvious threat to financial and economic stability of the State had the majority of the Seimas assumed, though with some delay and after a serious in-house crisis, responsibility for the situation in the country and the Government started to display [a] new way of management.
Last year the international community evaluated the development of our state. At the Washington NATO Summit, the heads of state and government of the Alliance identified Lithuania as an active aspiring country and instilled the hope that Lithuania's membership of NATO may be considered in the year 2002. The Helsinki European Council invited Lithuania to start accession negotiations with the EU. That was an encouraging part of the last year.
It is both a paradox and a law that the signs of crisis have become evident in the tenth year of independence. They show nothing else but the price to be paid for undone reforms.
Today we increasingly feel the negative results of delayed restructuring of energy, industry, and state monopolies, of the failure to introduce effective management in the main walks of public life. Who can tell how much we have lost by feeding the rural residents with empty promises; how many young people have not acquired education and hence [a] profession because of a halting education reform; how many people have abandoned the hope of a secure retired life because of protracted restructuring of the social security system?
The past mistakes and the present difficulties make the people doubt the strategic guidelines of Lithuania's development. The present day has opened up an historical possibility for us to overcome the attraction of Soviet time, previous thinking and habits. It calls for responsibility and joint efforts. It calls for new policies.
New policies mean first and foremost new requirements, which we -- the community of citizens -- must set for ourselves. They mean a rational, economically effective, transparent and future-oriented administration of the state. Democratic governance of our common life should be based on personal initiative and responsibility which should form the bedrock of our activity and without which democracy in Lithuania will never be strong and effective. New policies should be based on the unanimous agreement on strategic guidelines of national development and commitment to the key goals of our state.
Indeed, the people want to know now how Euro-Atlantic integration will affect their life and what new challenges they should be prepared for. I think that our public institutions should feel greater responsibility for informing the public about those issues. I also hope that our mass media will perform a more significant role in raising the awareness of the people. Lithuanian politicians and public servants should not be allowed to cover their clumsy decisions with real or imagined requirements of the European Union and to turn the fear of change [for] the people into a European ogre.
Can we afford to manipulate the people's attitude [of] NATO and the European Union? I believe that neither the tragic experiences of Lithuania in the 20th century nor the present reality permits [us] to be naive in talking [about] national security without allies.
The historical duty of all the people of Lithuania is to ensure a secure future of our restored state, to secure a free and democratic life [for] our children and grandchildren. We are well aware that Lithuania is not able to have the army capable to defend the country in the given geopolitical area. But we have a possibility to become a member of the western defense arrangement, NATO, and contribute to the Alliance.
The European Union is no less [an] important guarantee of our progress and future prosperity. Certainly, we may try to eliminate without any support a decades long gap between the West and us. But we should not forget that the Western world is not static and progresses more quickly than we do. Therefore, Lithuania can avoid the fate of a backward province only by catching a high-speed train of Europe and being a fully paid-up passenger on that train.
We should understand that membership [in] the European Union, per se, will not bring us a better life. But it will provide more favorable conditions for building our wellbeing. We cannot pass on responsibility for our future.
Today we should not slow down the pace of Euro-Atlantic integration because of anti-western outbreaks or election tactics of some political parties. I wish to remind that you, distinguished members of the Seimas, can eliminate the remaining legal obstacle to Lithuania's accession to the European Union by amending some provisions of the Constitution of Lithuania.
I think that our policies should be free of outdated prejudice and myth, and should project Lithuania's future on the European cultural and economic level. By no means can we tolerate anti-Semitism and hatred of other cultures and differently thinking people. I am convinced that their manifestation in Kaunas, the former provisional capital, is a passing phenomenon and that our people reject them.
A healthy and dynamic economy of Lithuania and the well being of the Lithuanian people are the prime goals of our State. Today we should build the foundation for a long-term economic growth, which our Government seems to be committed to. Lithuania has already created a stable business-friendly environment unrestricted by artificial bureaucratic barriers.
I think that the existing taxation system requires essential rather than partial reform. We should harmonize it with the standards applied in the civilized world and accommodate it to the requirements of the economic development.
Restructuring of state monopolies remains one of the prime tasks of the Government. It is most essential to ensure a transparent restructuring process endorsed across the political spectrum and make it clear and easy to understand [for] the people.
It is no less important today to create legal conditions for a more rapid adaptation of our businesses and industries to the changing environment. We should speed up bankruptcy procedures, where they cannot be avoided and restructure dying companies. New policies mean the ability to ensure social and economic cohesion and to attend to the individual needs and the vital interests of the nation.
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While in power, both the Democratic Labour Party and the Homeland Union promoted big business and took a hands-off attitude to small and medium sized business. Such a position of the authorities has impeded the emergence of the middle class, which is the bedrock of civil society, and resulted in large-scale social differences.
We should follow the practice of Western and Central European economies and revitalize and expand consulting and information systems for small and medium-sized businesses and establish new business incubators. Besides [that], we should consider more favorable conditions of crediting small business and reduction of bureaucracy that burdens it. Likewise, we should look most seriously at the present product lines selecting those, which will give us a stronger base for effective expansion in the international markets. Today, information technologies are the most rapidly developing global industry and Lithuania must orient its economy towards it.
Lithuanian agriculture needs new policy, just like Lithuania needs a healthy agricultural [basis]. But only raising its competitive ability can ensure its health. The State should undertake, without further delay, a rational approach to differentiated financial support to agriculture and recognize that some aspects of it require social support, whereas others, such as commercial farms, require aid to get them stronger and develop [a] position in the market.
The third and no less important target of rural development is the advancement of small business in rural areas. This task requires a targeted rural development program providing for expert advice and more favorable conditions of crediting. A more intensive land market would also invigorate agriculture, but its development today is impeded by a number of artificial barriers.
In my opinion, a reformed system of education plays the essential role in rural development. We must provide the young people living in rural areas with access to a high standard [of] education; to include new vocational expert training in rural vocational schools; and to open our universities to them. The first steps have been made in this direction.
We need further reforms in the field of education and science. Our task is to ensure wide access to secondary and vocational schools, to colleges and universities, and to provide our young people with such education that would permit them to live and work in [a] contemporary environment.
Provision of schools with necessary teaching and learning materials still causes serious concern. Together with private companies, the Ministry of Education and Science endeavors to speed up computerization of our schools. It is the right way. However, I believe that creation of [an] information society is the task of national importance, which requires enhanced attention of the Government and the Seimas. The libraries of Lithuania should also be active stakeholders in this process. Consistent implementation of the library modernization program, which has already been worked out, would assist in transforming them into modern information centers.
I am convinced that strong universities and strong colleges [are] the key to strong [a] Lithuania. But our universities and colleges will grow stronger, provided there is competition, effective management, and curricula oriented to the needs of the people and economy. I believe that the Law on Higher Education, which was passed this year, will help them to acquire new strength.
Another important aspect of our future is the learning society and the system of continuous adult training, which ensures its creation. We have to devise this system now. The changing world requires new cultural, economic and political literacy, and the education network should be designed to satisfy this requirement.
The poverty elimination strategy, which is of utmost importance to the people, is undergoing the last stage of improvement. I fully support the prime target of the strategy to alleviate the burden of poverty by pooling the efforts of the authorities, private business, non-governmental organizations and religious communities.
Inertia of bureaucracy and lack of transparent funding criteria encumbers the health care reform to a large extent. Today we need to switch to a real health insurance. It is necessary to guarantee, by legal instruments, the rights of the people to choose the doctor in any, private or public, health care institution.
In my opinion, new policies mean new effective administration of public affairs based on the principles of responsibility and transparency. The new effective administration requires reforming the state budget. We must consistently introduce the state budget based on programs and strategic planning and clearly oriented towards the priorities of society development.
The growing public debt shows poor administration of public funds. I think that the time has come for strengthening the independence of the treasury institution, which must operate according to legally established procedures, approved allocations and fixed debt limits rather than satisfying political whims.
I keenly follow the activity of the Sunset Commission. I expect that it will make concrete and resolute decisions, which will reduce the power and the costs of bureaucracy. Public institutions and public companies must have a functioning independent internal audit system. I hope that the Office of the State Control will more thoroughly undertake economic crime prevention and that the Office of the Prosecutor General will not delay investigation of such cases.
Unrestrained corruption translates into a problem of national security. Though somewhat late, we must fight corruption in municipal and highest level public institutions. New policies also face an important task of consistent protection of civil rights and human dignity. The state, which shows no respect to [the] individual, cannot and will not be respected. Our authorities are still insensitive to the restraining of the rights and freedoms of the individual and daily degradation of the people by bureaucracy.
I have always sought allies to implement my program and the project of Lithuania's modernization. I have always sought for [an] agreement across the political spectrum on the issues of vital importance to the nation. I hope that greater progress and success, wider solidarity, and deeper wisdom and greater self-confidence will mark the second decade of our independence.