News

Joint Statement

of Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committees

of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland

and Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania

Regarding Relations between Poland and Lithuania

In the context of the Europe Day celebrations, the anniversary of the Schumann Declaration, 220th anniversary of the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the 180th anniversary of the Rebellion of November 1831, and the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Nobel Prize winner Czesław Miłosz, also in view of the resolution adopted by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania on 28 April 2011 regarding the significance of the Constitution of 3 May 1791,

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland and Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania `call` on the societies in both countries to strengthen the solidarity between the two nations in building a new future for the European Union of the 21st century.

Our societies should not follow the path of ethnic misunderstandings, but rather base their relations on the ideas of freedom and human rights, strengthening the cooperation among the Visegrad, Baltic and Nordic States in the framework of the European Union.

8 December 2011 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet empire, referred to by Ronald Reagan as an “evil empire”, which separated Poland and Lithuania from the group of competitive free nations and diverted them from their own authentic path of development. Hundreds of thousands of victims were killed simply because they wanted to live in a free country. Terrible havoc in our region resulted from the Holocaust. Historians financially dependent on the communist Moscow acted to seed discord between the Polish and Lithuanian nations. It is imperative that our political circles and intellectuals take every effort today to revive the close relationship of our fraternal nations.

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between our countries, we must take all steps to ensure that the blood shed by our insurgents, the Constitution of 3 May 1791, and the Mutual Pledge of the Two Nations set an example of decent attitude to other nations building the Europe of the 21st century.

“Father-land is there, where misery is; for where-ever in Europe liberty is oppressed, there the contest for father-land is going on, and for such a cause all ought to fight.” These are the words of our common poet Adam Mickiewicz from The Books of the Polish Nation and the Polish Pilgrimage and we should remember this today, as we build common Europe!

Andrzej Halicki                                                                              Emanuelis Zingeris

Chairman                                                                                       Chairman

Foreign Affairs Committee                                                            Foreign Affairs Committee

of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland                                           of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania

Strasbourg, 10 May 2011