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Address delivered by President Václav Klaus to the members of Diplomatic Corps on the occasion of the Czech National Day

English Pages, 28. 10. 2004

· Today – on the 28th of October when we celebrate the Czech National Day – we commemorate the founding of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, a founding of a country that was free and democratic. It did not last, however, more than two decades. After that our democracy had suffered under totalitarian regime for long decades.

· As you know it has been only fifteen years when we – after the collapse of communist regime – once again got a chance to return to a place where we – due to our geographic location, our culture and our traditions – always belonged, to the democratic world.

· That is the reason why the Czech Republic now pays its primary attention to the further development of friendly relations with countries all over the world and why we focused our efforts on strengthening stability and peaceful coexistence on our continent and in the whole world.

· It is a pleasure to meet all of you here today. Embassies and ambassadors play even today an exceptional role. They are the primary and irreplaceable communication channel between our country and our partner countries abroad. Even though different forms of interaction among states, economies, companies, and citizens have rapidly grown lately, the role of embassies, ambassadors, envoys, and delegates remains very important.

· That is why I would like to thank all of you for everything that you have done for a successful development of relations between the Czech Republic and your countries, for your cooperation and activities which you have been pursuing at your positions.

· Due to your activities which have been enriching political and social life in our country, the Prague’s diplomatic corps is an active and lively body.

· As you know on the 1st of May, the Czech Republic entered the European Union. It has been a historical step in our foreign relations, it has been a logical final step of our post-communist development and a confirmation of a successful process of our transformation.

· Now we are facing a crucial challenge as regards the further direction of the enlarged European Union. We want to be an active partner in European dialogue. The Czech Republic is bringing into the current European debate its historical experience which might be in many aspects different from experiences of old EU member countries.

· We are well aware of the problems connected with the speedy and in many respects artificial European unification; we know well the risks of the functioning of large supranational bodies controlled by bureaucrats; we know that for achieving prosperity and success in today’s world, the size of territory or the number of citizens is not decisive. We know as well the significance of democratic decision making for the relationship of citizens towards their state or towards supranational structures.

· That is why we are not always in favour of the efforts to create – at any cost and in the shortest possible time – a structure which would be excessively unified and excessively centralistically organized.

· Our entry into the EU does not mean, however, that we would pay less attention to the development of relations with our partners outside the EU, whether they are our NATO allies, particularly USA, or our in other traditional partners in Europe or other continents. I believe that my state visits which were organized during the first third of my presidential term (which is just ending) confirm this orientation.

· Let me thank you once again for being here and I am looking forward to see you all tonight at the gathering organized on the occasion of the Czech National Day.

Thank you.

Václav Klaus, Prague Castle, 28.10.2004