I have been very pleased by your choice of our capital city as the venue of Civitas Conference a meeting whose agenda focuses on the need for a revival of civic education in both the new and the older democracies. To me, this is a gratifying symbol of a renaissance of Prague s role as a focal point of education and social life at a crossroads in the centre of Europe. As far as civil society is concerned, the Czech Republic is situated on a border between a world which has had a tradition in this respect and a world that is only discovering this dimension. The democratic tradition of the Czech nation, that had been forcibly broken, has now been restored. This experience has put us in a somewhat extraordinary position we can understand the feelings of the new democracies and at the same time share the concern felt by the older ones about lacking civic engagement.
Democracy is a system based on trust in human responsibility.
This responsibility, however, has to be constantly nurtured and cultivated. The state should not believe that it alone knows better than anyone else what the society needs. It should trust its citizens and enable them to share in a substantial way in exercising the responsibility for the condition of the society. To this end, it should offer them a wide range of opportunities for engaging in public life and developing diverse forms of civic coexistence, solidarity and participation. I trust that this conference will not be just an isolated ray of hope but a part of a longterm process that will bring about a genuine awakening of civic engagement in both the old and the new democracies far and wide.