Joining ranks with Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter, two outstanding leaders and two exceptional human beings whose achievements have always been an inspiration to my own work, is indeed among the crowning moments of my many years in public service. The only way to master these new challenges is through common action and joint strategies, which transcend the patterns of traditional cooperation. This is exactly why Austria decided to join the European integration process and became a member of the European Union in January this year. But European integration to us is much more than free trade or a common social and environmental policy. It means to actively participate in a common endeavor to establish lasting and comprehensive peace and stability on a continent which for centuries had been ravaged by wars and nationalistic violence.
European integration is a very complex and sometimes contradictory process.
And its vigor has been put to an additional test by the dramatic transformation in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union after 1989. I know that this is not easy in a time when the public attention span tends to reach no further than to the latest headline. The task of restructuring the economies of the new democracies is enormous, and the Western assistance which has so far been provided remains a rather sketchy patchwork. The success of economic transformation is still the most important precondition to permanently secure the victory of democracy and open societies in the post-communist countries. There is simply no alternative to continuing our efforts and our assistance for the reform process.