Speech of the Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek on the Occasion of the Bastille Day of the French Republic Delivered on 8th July 2008

This year's Bastille Day of the French Republic falls in the period when your country took over the EU presidency, and it will be just the Czech Republic, which will take it over after half a year. More than any time before I will deal with what joins France with the Czech Republic – both in the framework of the European history and from the point of view of current development. For that matter, the history and the future are interconnected. I only fear that we will reflect the past as bad and as little like we are reflecting it and learn from it nowadays.

Frenchmen and Czechs belong to nations which strongly represent the basic European value, which is freedom. From both countries stimuli arose in the past which had influence and which formed further development of the continent and the world's history. Reformation and Enlightenment, two traditions, one basic postulate: no hierarchy, no authority, no system are so firm and eternal so that it would not be possible to criticize them and doubt them.

That permanent calling of authorities in question is peculiar to the European thought. The right to criticize is among natural human right and its restriction is not tolerated by Europeans. Unlike other cultures, criticism is not deemed in Europe as something what endanger the system; on the contrary, it is its constructive element. It is not a hostile and destructive force; it is creative and inventive force. It is also a cleansing force, with the exception of totalitarian regimes.

Of course, if those critical doubts are to handle their role, the respect to moral values is the necessary precondition. It is the only one and correct restriction of our individual freedom. "The starry sky above me and the moral law within me", these words of Kant exactly put well the core of the European civilization.

We are celebrating today those three historical words: "Liberty, Equality Fraternity". We are celebrating values which survived, which are still basis of the European Union – even though we would translate them, politically correctly, as "Freedom, solidarity, cooperation". In the present European Union is inconceivable not to respect the moral law, not to respect rights, to solve problems using a force. It is historically unique situation and we owe it to the development from the Steel and Coal Community to the EU – and we, Czechs, also to the fall of the Iron Curtain.

We need not be afraid today of that dark unlimited freedom, or rather anarchy. The more that constitutive feature of freedom is coming to the fore. Doubt concerning authorities, which find expression in the fact that Europeans refuse to accept that eternal status quo, is also a basis of the present debate on the future of the European Union, the debate in which more and more frequently one question is asked: is the Union for citizen or citizens for the Union?

The present Frenchmen need not conquer the Bastille any longer to express their opinion on "ancient regime". The present Czechs need not defenestrate high officials to say "NO" excessive European bureaucracy. We have opinion polls, we have results of referenda on the institutional reform and we anticipate results of further referenda.

All of us know that people in countries of the European Union cease to understand those regulations and directives which are to protect them; nevertheless, they have a feeling that they bother them. We as democratic politicians have to listen to them. In the spirit of those traditions of Enlightenment and reformation, our duty is to set freedom back to the pedestal as the greatest of our values.

I am sure that Czechs and Frenchmen can understand each other well in this effort to give people a real freedom. I believe that also the strategic partnership of France and the Czech Republic, which is an evidence of restoration of the interest of France in Central and Eastern Europe, will help us in this effort. Czech-French economic year is an expression of our common responsibility in the framework of the oncoming presidency in the EU.

We have something to continue in. France was the first country which acknowledged independent Czechoslovakia. It even established diplomatic relations as early as on 17th October 1918, 11 days before establishment of Czechoslovakia, which was a unique situation in the history. And finally, we have always regarded France as a strategic west ally.

Today we are remembering the day when people in Paris expressed fully their anger and discontent with the governance. The present situation in the UE is not half as dramatic. But still, we should not marginalize the grumbling which resonates from the individual European countries. I am sure it is grumbling only over the form, not over the content. If a referendum was held on leaving the EU, not on the content with bureaucracy, the answer will be straight "NO". We need not fear that the criticism of the present state of the European Union and its present direction could cause a destabilization. The moral code is guaranteed. It only remains to listen to criticism of our citizens, without emotions and laments. Then we will have also that "starry sky above us". The European stars will flutter the more proudly and self-confidently, the more we will be able not to regard any of present stars as eternal fixed star, any doctrine as unchangeable dogma. It is necessary to wave the flag a bit, so that stars could be visible.

Thank you for the invitation, thank you for friendship. I thank France for allowing Europe and the world to experience the strength of Enlightenment, with its stress on rationality and free thought. These are values which are useful and it will be useful for the European Union.