Strasbourg, 17/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - Invited to speak before the European Parliament, Slovene President Milan Kucan made a plea for the globalisation of democratic policies and values. This globalisation should concern common values: democracy, individual and collective rights, dialogue between cultures, religions and civilisations, the fight against nationalism and xenophobia. For the Slovene President this would be the basis for a European Union necessarily "enlarged to all European countries": "the first Europe is the European Union; the second is that of the candidate countries in the first or second class waiting rooms"; the third is that of the Eastern and South Eastern Balkans, "which have not yet arrived in the ante-chamber", the fourth being those of countries which, like Serbia, reject Europe. At a time when the economy, markets and information technologies have been globalised, this "globalisation" of politics would allow for "the establishment of social cohesion which will balance the effects of already globalised capital", and allow for the old divisions of the cold war from being prevented from being replaced by "cultural, religious and social divisions". For the Slovene President, no European country should be allowed to hide behind "principles of sovereignty or non-interference" to violate human rights.
Milan Kucan did not however speak out in favour of a European federation. He only once mentioned the word "integration" in his address, preferring that of "co-existence". In his speech, as before the press, he also placed emphasis on the need to preserve the specific nature of each Member State.
Milan Kucan, moreover, recalled that Slovenia "will be ready to join the EU in 2002". He complained that EU membership increasingly resembled a "moving target", due to the doubts and changing attitudes of certain Member States. We need, he said, clarity and transparency (…) To delay enlargement would mean that Europe has not yet buried the past (…) that it renounces its influence and presence in the world". Slovenia's President criticised the tendency of some countries "to raise their purportedly justified interests in relation to Slovenia to the level of an EU demand. I am thinking of the demand for restitution of property to those from whom it was appropriated following the Second World War as part of its sanctioning", demands that should be settled bilaterally. He hoped that "enlargement will not be slowed down by bilateral demands".