I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for your kind words of welcome. It was with the greatest pleasure that I was honoured to accepted the invitation to speak at this prestigious seat of study and research in the area of commerce that has made so great a contribution to the education of young professionals, company managers and economic agents prepared to face the challenges with which Latvia is confronted within the scope of its membership of the European Union. To a large extent, they are charged with ensuring full consolidation of the market economy that has been under way since the restoration of Latvian independence in 1991.

Affirmation of national sovereignty, democracy and regard for fundamental rights and freedoms, values dear to our societies, also means that citizens are provided with conditions for their well being, development and prosperity.

In the globalised world in which we live, marked by internationalisation of the economy, open markets and exponential increase of trade flows, only dynamic, competitive economies seem to respond to the double role of, on the one hand, providing income that is able to meet the needs of the citizens and their rightful aspiration to an increasingly high standard of living and, on the other, providing states with sufficient resources to carry out their natural tasks, particularly that of ensuring the cohesion of society and solidarity.

In this connection, international trade has a fundamental part to play, not only, moreover, as a means of ensuring that production can be sold but also as the engine of economic activity and of development in general. It is, however, in establishing relations between peoples, in dialogue between cultures and in interchanges and meetings between civilisations that the role of trade in the history of mankind can been seen in its fullness.

Allow me to recall in this connection the ancient relations that have united Portugal and Latvia since the end of the 14th century, even though there was later a long period during which geographic distance and the vicissitudes of history were to prevail. Indeed, documents of the times refer to a considerable flow of merchandise between the ports of Riga and of Lisbon that took part within the framework of the Hanseatic League. The Portuguese exported wine, salt and fruit, the Hanseatics brought us cereals, flour, timber, metals and textiles.

Although the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 destroyed the larger part of the dwellings of the time, it is known that the Customs buildings, built right alongside the river Tagus, where the merchandise was stored and import duties collected, constituted the centre of the economic life of Lisbon and even of the country. Later, with the development of major transoceanic trade and the progressive decline of Hansa, the volume of trade between Lisbon and the Hanseatic ports, unable to withstand the contingencies of distance, waned and contacts became irregular. From then on Portugal moved into an exalting cycle of its history, setting out on the maritime expansion that, as some would have it, constituted the forerunner of globalisation by opening up trade between Europe, Asia, America and Africa.

With this brief historic evocation I merely want to emphasise two points: on the one hand, our joint membership of the European Union, marking a turning point in the approach between Latvia and Portugal, means taking up old relations once again, and this will also contribute to the creation of a shared cultural and civilisational heritage; on the other, without this common European legacy, built up over the centuries, this present unification of our continent could hardly have been aimed, as we desire, at the consolidation of a single space of economic and political integration.

My friends,

It is with great satisfaction that I am visiting your beautiful country. My trip to Latvia is the last stage of a long journey through the countries of the enlargement that I began in 1996. Since then, history has accelerated. Today, of the candidates to the Union, only Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey are left. The other ten countries of Central and Eastern Europe signed their membership treaties last April. We have thus doubled a difficult cape of our contemporary history, closing a cycle that began with the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. European construction, surely last century’s most exalting political project, is now moving into a new stage of its path to success, based on ties of trust and solidarity between its members.

Portugal has always been a firm supporter of enlargement. We did so, firstly, through conviction, for we believe in a united Europe, free of dividing lines and open, based on democracy, rule of law, market economy and a community of values. We did so next for coherence, for we recognise from our own experience the decisive importance that our own membership had in the consolidation of Portuguese political democracy, in the development and modernisation of the country, and in strengthening our own international projection.

Despite the fact that we are seen to be the country of the Union that gleans least economic benefits from the enlargement – for our geographic location, for the characteristics of our production fabric, for the profile of our framework of trade relations – we have always believed it to be a duty, a need and an opportunity for Europe. A duty of solidarity towards the new democracies. An opportunity for development, security, peace and stability on the European continent. A strategic need stemming from the process of globalisation now under way, in which only an enlarged, cohesive Union can impose itself as a valid interlocutor able to assert its interests and values.

It is my belief that European construction is the right goal for the future. A better future requires a reunified Europe, a Europe based on solid institutions and on policies of solidarity, an instrument essential to proper cohesion. Enlargement of the Union is also, and particularly so, a commitment to the construction of a space of peace, democracy, justice, stability, security and prosperity shared by all. It is now even more indispensable that Europeans strengthen their mutual ties, become one with their common destiny, feel and experience the European adventure both as an opportunity and as a challenge in which the union of all and the solidarity of all will create the strength of each one of us.

The story of Portugal’s European integration is one of success. We can therefore contribute, with our experience of success in the matter of membership, to the acceleration of Latvia’s integration into the European Union. We are ready and willing to co-operate with the authorities and institutions of Latvia in sharing our knowledge and successful policies, and in avoiding the mistakes made in the past
Sharing this common European house, Portugal and Latvia are now bound not only to enhancing their knowledge of each other but also to establishing privileged ties of co-operation that could be developed at the most varied levels. First and foremost, they will be linked to the European umbilical cord, bound to the duties of solidarity, unity and cohesion, linked by relations of mutual trust and common commitment to European construction; secondly, they will be associated on an equal footing with European governance, becoming partners within the Union system of Governance; thirdly, they will have the opportunity to enhance their bilateral relations in the various fields – it is quite natural that political contacts will be more frequent and consultations more regular at the level of the various organs of sovereignty; fourthly, it is both foreseeable and desirable that trade relations will become more intense and that reciprocal investment will develop; and lastly, cultural interchange, contacts between universities, schools and institutions will be stimulated as will greater reciprocal knowledge of arts and letters.

Among these new opportunities, moreover, we can find the meaning of the "four freedoms", the freedoms that the Treaty of Rome was designed to promote through the creation of conditions allowing the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital within the Community. This objective, as we know, was later taken up once again in the Single European Act adopted in 1985, which made official the creation of a space with no borders as from 1992. In this connection, it should be recalled that it was on the basis of the Single Act, the first attempt to reform the founding Treaties, that the Commission, then presided by Jacques Delors, the figurehead of European construction, presented a programme of reforms essential to bringing about the Single Market that was to be decisive to the development of the Community polices of cohesion and solidarity. I mention this point because it is never too much to underscore the importance of the cohesion and solidarity policies to the viability of the European project, at the twofold level of consolidation of the Single European market and of strengthening the ties of solidarity between Europeans.

At a time when European enlargement will increase the disparities of the levels of development between Member States and will alter the balances that have prevailed to date, it is, in my view, essential that we maintain and even consolidate the mechanisms of cohesion and the solidarity policies, adapting them to the new realities. This is a duty to which we are all bound if we are not to fail the rightful expectations of the new members, if we do not wish to defraud the territorial, economic and social cohesion that has characterised the European space and if we do not wish to debase the essence of the European project.

My vision of the Europe of the future is one of a Federation of Nation States based on the principle of equality, cohesion and solidarity between partners, driven by a purposeful vision and encouraged by a spirit of mutual trust, in which dialogue, agreement and mutual respect are the basic principles of this common experience.

In our globalized world we need a strong and united Europe if we want to ensure our own sovereignty and national identities, and to reinforce our image abroad. The European Union does not replace the domestic agenda, but it works as a driving force, giving it a sustained momentum which stimulates national self-esteem. This is our own experience. Europe has always been and has to remain a factor of progress, improving material conditions and increasing opportunities to assert our national identities.