The First Decade of Lithuania in the European Union: between Meta-Political Values and “Pragmatic” Politics

Abstract

At present, the accommodative and technocratic policy of Europe, dominant in Lithuania (as well as in the European Union), is pushing Lithuania (and the European Union) to the margins of global politics, and it reflects the inability to fight for Lithuania’s meta-political interests in the European Union and the region. With a decade of its membership in the European Union at hand, Lithuania has not yet formulated a strategic vision of its presence in the European Union; all the previous attempts to develop such a strategy have been exhausted or failed; meanwhile the strategic capabilities of Lithuania are consistently weakening. The main objective of this article is to enrich the current technocratic policy with a meta-political, values-based, strategic dimension. Seeking the best feasible alternatives for the horizontal and fragmented level of Lithuania’s studies on Europe, the researcher has consciously chosen the European policy of the Holy See which stands out as to its verticality, capability to maintain the continuity of its principles and essential goals and its impact on the formation of Europe itself. It is an attempt to find the most general attitude to the European Union perspective which is lacking in the current discussions on European policy in Lithuania and in the policy itself. Christian meta-politics provides Lithuania with a possibility to consciously choose a positive rather than negative freedom in Europe. A positive freedom in the European Union would enable Lithuania to maintain its political and cultural identity, and would grant it a weighty role in the region, the European Union and the world. In its own turn, in the social and economic areas a Christian metapolitics would strengthen societal integrity, solidarity, personal and communal responsibility, and would enhance humanity—an action in short supply in Lithuanian policy.