Only a few days to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Over these two decades many of the divisions and fractures created by nearly half a century of Cold War have been mended, and with the enlargement of the European Union (EU) and of NATO a part of the continent that had been “sequestered” in the wake of the Second World War has begun to re-emerge. And yet the goal of a common European house has still not become a reality.
There are portions of this continent, to the east and south, that are not fully part of this European house, but that would like to be, and with which we still have a ways to go to shorten the human and political distances. Distances that Italy, with its new “Ostpolitik” appropriate to the current reality, is seeking patiently and assiduously to reduce.
Indeed, to the East, after the fractures created last year by the Russia-Georgia conflict, we have been working to reconnect the Caucasus with Europe, by contributing to the creation of the Eastern Partnership, a new cooperation mechanism involving the EU, the countries of the Caucasus, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus. The results are proof of the merit of this initiative. A positive dynamic has caught on, as witnessed by the recent accords signed by Armenia and Turkey which, if ratified by their respective parliaments, will help break down the human barriers, in addition to economic and political ones, and aid in their European integration.
We are committed to saving Belarus for Europe, a country that after two decades of isolation and suspension in relations with the Western world, has decided to open itself to dialogue in order to find its way back to the great European family. I will be going to Minsk in the coming weeks, first among the European foreign ministers to encourage the new season in that country and its willingness for dialogue.
Italy is acting as a trailblazer in the normalisation of Europe’s relations with Minsk, making the most of a factor that is in this country’s DNA, and that is the human factor. We have credibility with the Belarus society that others haven’t got and that derives from the example of 23,000 families that have hosted over 300,000 children and patients on therapeutic cures. Since the 1986 Cherbobyl tragedy, generations of children from Belarus have come for long periods to live with us, learning our language and assimilating our culture. Each year more that 20,000 children spend their summer holidays here in Italy.
No one is obviously asking Belarus to turn its back on its traditional ally Russia, aware of how solid those historic, cultural and economic ties are. Russia itself is part of the common house of Europe, even with all its special features. Instead Belarus is being asked to look to the West because its European and Russian vocations are complementary and can and must be integrated.
Given this openness on Italy’s part, clear signs are expected from the Minsk authorities on the continuation of the democratic path recently undertaken. The work begun by the permanent national public consultation committee with NGOs dealing with human rights is inspiring confidence. The Belarus government is also holding the lively debate just launched by its Parliament on the death penalty. From the results of these initiatives, which it is hoped will be positive, the real extent of Belarus’ willingness to fully integrate into that Europe that has made human rights protection its badge of evolution.
To the south, Italy’s commitment to create a united Europe is made concrete in an active policy in favour of the complete integration of the Western Balkans. Ten years after the war in Kosovo—the last Balkans war to bloody our continent—it is time to lead this region back to its family. The first concrete symbol of this reconnection is without a doubt the possibility for citizens of those countries to travel in Europe without a visa.
Starting on January 1st of 2010, and thanks to the impetus of Italy, the citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be free to visit EU countries to rebuild those human bridges burnt twenty years ago. It will be a date to celebrate and it is hoped that the other countries from Albania to Bosnia-Herzegovina will soon be included in this process. But we will only truly be able to celebrate when all of these countries become part of the European Union.
Italy’s ambition is that 2014, the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, will become a date on which to bring this process to term for all of Europe. At a distance of one century, the continent would thus show that it had overcome forever the consequences of that terrible conflict. The beginning of Europe’s decline coincided with the assassination at Sarajevo and it is precisely from Sarajevo, and with the reconnection with the Balkans, that a new season could begin for the entire continent.