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Is history repeating its self?

Last Friday I was sitting in the seat of a member of the Lithuanian Parliament (the “Seimas”) together with 400 other representatives from civil society in Europe, for the closing conference of the European Year of Citizens and I caught two signs that maybe it was.

The first from Ostap Kryvdyk, a Ukrainian representative of the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Maidan Square, “independence Square”, only 600 kilometres from Vilnius. He came wearing an armband where the Ukrainian and EU flags are joined together and with the message that demonstrators want to join the EU. They even call the square “Euro-Maidan”. What has been happening in the last three weeks in Kiev follows the refusal of the Ukrainian President to sign an association agreement with the EU and is quite amazing.

The second came from Mr Vytautas Landsbergis, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Lithuania who also happened to be the first head of state of Lithuania after its independence from the Soviet Union. Before he took the floor, we watched a short movie showing the 1991 Lithuanian citizens movement that protected the Parliament from Soviet troops. In that movie we saw Mr Landsbergis, 23 years younger, reading the declaration of independence.

With such a history, I understand why the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs cancelled his appearance at the conference. He was taking care of the Ukrainian issue. All of Lithuania must remember the first state that recognised its independence, Iceland 23 years ago. It must be carved deep in their hearts when they are doing everything to be also among the first to recognise the wish from demonstrators in Ukraine to be free to join the EU association agreement.

The fact that it happened in Vilnius and that the Ukrainian movement is growing every day, these two days in Vilnius were a great moment of questioning about the role given to citizenship and about being a member of the EU. As Mr Landbergis rightly put it, citizenship is more than a word on our passport. It is a feeling of regaining freedom of action and taking responsibility for the people around us.

But citizenship should not be summed up as just street demonstrations. For example the European Year Citizens Alliance, made up of not less than 62 European and national organisations, has produced 80 recommendations that were handed to the Vice President of the Commission Viviane Reding. We are looking towards their implementation for a more participative Union. We need it now!

Let’s engage

Pierre Baussand – Director