prijava
SARAJEVO, December 8 (FENA) - George Papandreou, President of the Socialist International and former Prime Minister of Greece, spoke at the "Sarajevo Fest - Art and Politics" festival on "Western Balkans on the Crossroads: Future of Euro-Atlantic Integration" forum.
The Foundation of the Society of Shared Values Sarajevo and the East West Center organized the Forum. Papandreou discussed the need to understand each other better through basic common values with the President of the Foundation, former Prime Minister and former BiH Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdžija.
Papandreou said, among other things, that there were occupations, wars, and dictatorships in many areas of the Balkans... There was no time to build democratic institutions, but that is why democracy is extremely important for these societies.
He stated that the European Union is a construction, a structure or project that emerged from a terrible destruction, from a struggle between members of different ethnic groups, the Holocaust, genocide ... Out of the great suffering after the two world wars.
"This project implied that people say 'we as members of different ethnic groups, as people from different countries who have gone through struggle and pain and horror, can live with each other'. But in order to live with each other we must base this project on concrete shared values that we all respect," Papandreou said.
Papandreou believes that multilateralism in Europe is under attack,that Europe is facing a challenge. On the one hand, it is a question of fighting for dominance between the great powers: America, Russia, China, which could undermine the European project. And yet there is potential for the project to become a light and an opportunity to live together if everyone is committed to shared values.
"Europe is a hope for the world. Provided that we understand the power we have. And we often have more power than we are aware of," Papandreou stated.
He stressed that the Western Balkans should have its place in the European Union, and that Greece as one of the older EU member states is fighting for its integration into the Union.
(FENA) A. B.
