Stundin er komin at leggja okkara samstarv við ES til rættis av nýggjum.
Vit hava tørv á einum breiðari samstarvi og meira tíðarhóskandi karmi fyri okkara viðurskiftum við ES.
Tað var boðskapurin í røðuni hjá Kaj Leo Holm Johannesen, løgmanni, á móttøku, sum Sendistova Føroya í ES skipaði fyri seinnapartin.
Á móttøkuni vóru fólk úr diplomatiska umhvørvinum í Brússel, bæði sendifólk og umboð fyri ES stovnar og aðrar fealgsskapir.
Fyrrapartin bar løgmaður somu sjónarmið fram á tveimum fundum.
Fyrri fundurin var við Luis Felipe Fernandez de la Pena.
Hann er stjóri fyri m.a. Evropa í Uttanríkiseindini hjá ES (EEAS - European External Action Service).
Seinni fundur var við danska ES-tinglimin Morten Messerschmidt, ið helst verður formaður í bólkinum í Evropatinginum fyri samstarv við EFTA lond.
Sami bólkur hevur hvørt ár fund við Útnorðurráðið.
Røðan hjá løgmanni:
Excellences, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
A very warm welcome to you all! I would like to thank you for making room in your busy calendars to spend some time with us here today.
It is a great pleasure to have this opportunity to meet so many and to say a few words. I won’t take too much of your time. I know that the most important part of an event like this is the chance to talk informally with colleagues and to develop new connections - not listen to formal speeches!
The Faroe Islands have had a diplomatic presence in Brussels since 1998. The Mission of the Faroes is the first point of contact between the Government of the Faroes and the major EU institutions - the Commission, the Council and the Parliament.
It is also an important point of contact with the representatives of the individual EU member states and with the many other countries, entities and organizations that also have a presence here in the international capital of Europe.
So let me thank our head of mission and her staff for arranging this gathering of our valuable and valued colleagues and friends in Brussels.
I am sure that you all have your own particular knowledge about the Faroe Islands and our relations with the EU and Europe as a whole.
So I don’t need to give you a long and detailed introduction.
But let me just say a few words about who we are, and where we see the Faroe Islands in the broader framework of European cooperation.
We are a West Nordic nation – a group of 18 islands in the middle of the Northeast Atlantic - with an economy heavily dependent on fisheries.
Our population of almost 50,000 makes us one of the smallest political entities in Europe. But our total maritime area of 274 thousand square kilometers, together with the high level of autonomy we enjoy as a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, also means that we have a key place and role in the political landscape of northern Europe.
As you will know, the Faroe Islands chose not to be a part of Denmark’s membership of the European Union – or the European Economic Community, as it was called back then.
We have been a third country in relation to the EU ever since – but not a distant third country. We are a European country and one of the EU’s closest neighbors.
So it is also natural that the EU is our closest and largest trading partner. Our free trade agreement with the EU provides us with more or less free access for our fisheries products to EU markets. I say “more or less”, because there are still some imbalances that need to be addressed.
The newest area of cooperation we have with the EU is in research. In 2010 the Faroe Islands became an associated country to the EU’s Seventh Framework Program. In June we concluded negotiations with the EU on a new agreement to continue this participation under Horizon 2020.
We are looking forward to signing the new agreement with the EU, hopefully in just a few weeks from now, as soon as it has been formally adopted by the Council.
I welcome the strong focus on innovation under Horizon 2020, based on cutting edge business and research expertise. This is very much in line with our own focus in the Faroese context. Innovation is key for economic development, for us especially in the fisheries and maritime sectors, but also increasingly in communication and renewable energy technologies and the creative industries.
Cooperation on fisheries management with our nearest neighbors, including the EU, is not only important for the Faroe Islands, it is absolutely necessary. And it has a long history.
Some of the most important commercial fish stocks for the Faroe Islands are the ones that we share with other coastal states in the region.
Disagreement on the joint management of the herring stock has been the subject of a very serious dispute between the Faroes and the EU over the last year.
But I am not here in Brussels this week to focus on these recent problems, as difficult and serious as they have been.
I am actually here to underline how pleased I am that our differences have been settled and we can now put them behind us.
But the dispute did reveal a need for the Faroes and the EU to work much better together – and to develop a broader and deeper understanding for the future, as closest neighbours.
New and forward-looking bridges are already being built in our fisheries cooperation, and I am sure the same can be done in many other areas as well.
We have a broader vision for future economic cooperation as a European partner that should extend beyond the joint management of fish stocks and trade in fish products.
I believe a more modern form of cooperation between the Faroe Islands and the EU is long overdue. And we are now looking more closely in the Faroes at possible new areas of cooperation and ways to revitalize our existing relations with the EU.
As a small island nation in northern Europe, at the crossroads of the Arctic and North Atlantic, we want to create new international synergies and promote economic development with all our partners, across the North Atlantic region and beyond.
And we have a very good basis for doing so.
We have an intimate relationship with the sea, and the skills and experience needed to make a profitable and sustainable living from the sea, both in fisheries and aquaculture, and in many other marine-based sectors. We are situated strategically in the important transport corridors of the
Northeast Atlantic. And we have a well-educated and flexible workforce with a globalized outlook.
So I am here in Brussels to try to sow the seeds that can lead to a more intensive and a more dynamic dialogue with our European colleagues – to promote a new generation of cooperation.
I am confident we can make meaningful progress in the near future. The EU is after all a dynamic political cooperation between 28 sovereign states. It is a unique international cooperation that recognizes and embraces a wide diversity of geographic, cultural and demographic realities.
If the EU can accommodate and adapt its work to this diversity among its own members, then I am sure it can also find suitable ways to engage with its closest non-EU neighbors and also recognize our own unique circumstances, no matter our size.
Excellences, ladies and gentlemen
Another reason for my visit this week is to attend the Opening Ceremony of the Special Olympics European Summer Games here in Brussels tomorrow afternoon.
The “Games of the Heart” as they are called, are being hosted by Antwerp all next week.
I am very proud of the fact that we have a national team competing here in our own name under the Faroese flag. They will all be arriving in Brussels later today. The Faroe Islands also participate in the Para-Olympics with a national team.
But we have still not gained full membership of the International Olympic Committee, where we also wish to compete independently in the main Olympic Games, as we do in so many other international sporting and cultural events. I am sure we will eventually succeed.
We Faroe Islanders are well known for being very competitive and very persistent! And as few as we are, we certainly have sportsmen and artists of an international caliber, who are in fact our very best ambassadors.
As I said to begin with, I don’t want to keep you too long from the real purpose of our reception here today. And that is for you to enjoy the company over some food and drinks, to connect with those you already know and to make new connections with others.
That is of course what we are here to do - to strengthen and broaden our connections with the international community here in Brussels.
Thank you all once again for joining us here today. Please stay connected with us - here and now today, and also in the future!