After World War II and the loss of tens of millions of lives, Europeans knew how precious peace was and how important it was to preserve it every day.
On 9 May 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman presented a plan for a new Europe. His visionary idea to bring the coal and steel production of France and West Germany, then the basis of the war industry, under joint control meant that war between the historical enemies became not only unthinkable, but impossible. From this political vision emerged the European Union.
Our homes hold stories of sacrifice, poverty, wars, heroism, migrations, struggles, and pride. We keep photographs of our ancestors who lived harder lives than we do, yet knew that the house needed to be preserved and built better for those who came after.
It pains us to know that many of our people who left still have no reason to return. They have succeeded all over the world, because they found more order, security and opportunities there. Their success is the pride of the family, but it is also a warning to the country. Every departure of a hard-working, educated and honest person leaves an empty place at the family table and an empty place in the development of Montenegro.
Therefore, the European path must respond to parental concern, to the student dilemma, to the worker's salary, to pension security, and to the question that is often heard in our homes: where will our children live? Montenegro must become a country where people leave out of curiosity and ambition, and return out of the certainty that there is a life here worth the effort.
Montenegro will fulfill a historic goal. We will become a member state of the European Union. Fulfilling the conditions is an important part of that path, but the real goal is an orderly, just, solidary and economically strong state.
The role of a poor relative and the last in the European order is not the destiny of Montenegro.
A solidary community begins with the state's ability to see a person who needs support. This is a test of the maturity of Montenegro's development.
A strong economy is when a farmer has a market and support, when a doctor, teacher, worker, engineer and civil servant know that their work has value, when a young expert stays because he knows that in Montenegro he can progress through knowledge.
Europe in Montenegro has value only when European rules apply when laws are written, the budget is spent, public sector employment is employed, education is reformed, healthcare is organized, the nature of Montenegro is protected and decisions are made in the interest of all of us. Europe in Montenegro must become a working habit of the state.
Montenegro has everything it needs to succeed. We have hardworking people, a strong diaspora, knowledge, natural beauty, European history and a clear will of the citizens for the country to become a member of the European Union. We just need more order, more responsibility and more respect for the public interest.
Montenegro wants the place it deserves. Membership in the European Union will be a great recognition. More importantly, it will be what the citizen feels the day after, the year after and ten years after: that the state is working well, honestly and successfully.
After the war, Europe learned that peace survives when it is embedded in institutions. Montenegro must learn that the European future is good when it is embedded in everyday life: in well-written law, in court proceedings that do not drag on, in schools that provide knowledge, in healthcare that does not keep us waiting, in a budget that is spent responsibly.
Europe Day should be a day of seriousness for us, when we do not talk about how close we are to the goal, but about what we still have to do to make the goal meaningful. Montenegro must finish the job, because membership in the European Union is worth as much as it makes people's lives better.
Europe in Montenegro and Montenegro in Europe will become the same thing when we all know that the European standard does not begin across the border, but here, in our country. This is the responsibility of our generation. This work measures the maturity of the state, the seriousness of politics and respect for every person who calls Montenegro their homeland.
