The Croatian Pan-European Union organized the international conference “Century after the First World War: the historical heritage and perspectives of the European Union” in Zagreb on 19-21. October 2018.
The delegation of the Montenegrin Pan-European Union participated in the conference, while among other participants were also presented President of the HPEU Mislav Ježić, President of the International Pan-European Union Alain Terrenoire, the General Secretary of the International Pan-European Union Pavo Barišić, representatives of Pan-European organizations from other Southeast European countries, as well as Europe as a whole, then the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenković, the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia Marija Pejčinović Burić, the Deputy of the President of the Republic of Croatia Mate Granić, the European Parliamentarians from Croatia, Germany and Slovakia, representatives of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Hans Seidel Foundation and others. As part of the conference, a special block was organized in which the Presidents and representatives of the Youth PanEvropa from several countries shared their opinion on specific topics.At the end of the conference, the Declaration of Participants was adopted with key messages for further development and progress of the region and encouragement towards the European Union further development in up-coming key years.
DECLARATION
“We, participants of the international conference of the Croatian Pan-European Union in Zagreb in 2018, from France, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Croatia declare that:
- we give support to the institutions of the European Union, to all member-states and states on the way to membership in the European Union in the processes of strengthening the European Union as a subject of International politics able to protect the interests of European citizens in the relations with great world powers and to follow the policy of peace, in accordance with the pacifist idea and the reasons for which the Union was created,
- we support the development of the common economic, foreign and defense policies to enable the Union to fulfill its tasks,
- we encourage the political leaders of the European Union to see in the exit of the United Kingdom at the same time an opportunity to achieve a more integrated and functional European Union which will be the political, economical and cultural subject that was not realizable so far,
- we advocate the unified European Union, its cohesion, solidarity and common development, and invite the European institutions not to create divisions among member states according to speed, currency, or plans about different educational, scientific or economic levels of its different parts,
- we support the quick inclusion of Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen space because the freedom of movement is an expression of the unity of Europe for its citizens,
- we advocate the continuation of the enlargement of the European Union to countries on the way to integration, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania, and invite the European institutions to help them in fulfilling the criteria for integration, and to let each of them join the Union when it fulfills these criteria,
- we invite Greece and Macedonia to solve the open question concerning the country name in a way that will not offend somebody’s national feelings, and thereby invite Greece to stop blocking Macedonia on its way to the integration into the Union, and Macedonia not to miss the right moment for solving the problem,
- we appeal to governments and political representatives of the countries of South-Eastern Europe to develop good neighborhood relations of mutual respect, and not to use the rhetoric of expansionism, hegemony, assimilation or intolerance nor to to incite conflicts either among states or among nationalities or minorities in their own country, but to recognize that cooperation, mutual respect and solidarity among nations, or citizens in a society, or different religions, or differing political worldviews is the only way towards peace, progress and the integration into the European Union,
- we summon the political representatives of all European countries to make efforts in securing solidarity in European societies, and to secure such a free market that will be regulated by social and ecological standards of policies and legislation, as the Founding Fathers imagined the united Europe, such as can guarantee the sustainable development for citizens of Europe and future generations,
- we encourage the political representatives of the European Union to look for the most appropriate civilized solutions for eliminating the causes of great migration waves, and for the help to emigration countries in the development which can achieve this, in the interest of both Europe and its neighbors in Africa and Asia,
- we are eager to preserve the European identity, that always was and should be open to enrichment through the encounter with other cultures, but should however cherish good classical education in the common Greek, Roman and Christian roots of the European culture, as well as in specific national cultural heritages, and in multilingualism, along with the necessary development of the most updated scientific and technological education, thus opposing their endangering by inconsiderate and irresponsible educational reforms, because without good education it is not possible to guarantee the future of the European Union in this world of very dynamic technological progress without the loss of its identity and values,
- we warn of the importance of the care for family as the cell of society, without which there is no future, especially in this Europe that becomes the continent of old people, or in a country like Croatia where villages and cities become void of inhabitants, and oppose the family-inimical ideologies, in the conviction that the education for love and respect of the other person and for family values represents, along with the education for the respect of nature and the whole creation, the most important kind of civil education and of the culture of life in the contemporary world.
