European Parliament elections will take place on June 9. Estonia is participating for the fifth time. I am not exaggerating in any way when I say that never before has the European Parliament been elected during more complicated and difficult times. And never before have the personal traits of people Estonia will send to the Parliament been this important.

Not only because Europe is facing the biggest crisis since the end of World War II. But also because Estonia has in recent years achieved a level of visibility and being heeded in Europe that we have never had before. Where we stand is not just taken into consideration, it has blazed new trails and led the way in many matters. We must not surrender this position, while we should also take care not to misuse it.

International trust and respect are hard to come by, while it is very easy to gamble away. The responsibility for maintaining tiny Estonia's considerable reputation lies not just with our government and diplomats, but also with every delegate we send to the European Parliament. Every Estonian delegate must feel their responsibility not just for pursuing the Estonian agenda, but also for the future of Europe.

Europe will never be finished. Every new generation will shape it in their image. And I'm glad to find that we have arrived at a time when our voice carries as much weight as that of Germany or France. Europe is "us," not "them."

The times are not easy. Recent years have been extremely difficult not just for us, but the whole of Europe. Covid, the energy crisis and the recession have all tested European solidarity – as expressed in the motto of "one for all and all for one" – as well as its ability to compete with major powers, such as the U.S. and China.

The history of the USA has seen it concentrate more on domestic matters now and again, and every such period of distancing from the rest of the world has resulted in more or less chaos for the rules-based world order.

On one hand, this shift in priorities is understandable as the Americans also struggle to explain to their people why they need to be both the groom and security at every wedding.

But the U.S. is also far from rising above competing with the EU economically, for example, by laying down new tariffs for goods of European origin. At the same time, both the USA and Europe must stand up to threats from China.

All of these matters are very difficult for Estonia or any other country to navigate alone. Major powers like to deal with smaller counterparts individually as it makes it easier to impose their will. A clear and united European strategy of "one for all and all for one" clearly serves our interests here.

There is also room for improvement in EU-U.K. relations. While Brexit happened, this does not mean the EU should not have the closest possible relationship with its former member. More so as the role of the U.K. in Europe and our region is pivotal today, when the problems of the EU and NATO largely coincide.

The free movement of people, capital, goods and services are the EU's founding principles, while we have seen them tested by crises. Encroaching from the direction of larger countries is hidden protectionism and a rally of subsidies where smaller countries, like Estonia, that have the most to gain from the common European market draw the short stick. Europe must engage in meaningful efforts to boost competitiveness instead of having the taxpayer pick up the tab for inefficiency.

In a rally of subsidization, even the wealthiest countries' taxpayers will eventually be exhausted, while deficiencies in competitive ability will remain. We need people in the European Parliament who, with every new regulation, can draw attention to the concerns of small and medium businesses on whom depends the future of the European economy.

Russia makes for a separate topic altogether. More precisely war that Russia has once again released. It is more than two years since Russia launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine. For two years, the Ukrainian people have been repelling the attacks of its aggressive neighbor, defending themselves on all fronts with extraordinary valor. They are defending themselves because they've seen what happens when the Russians win. What is happening in Ukraine is genocide. Russian soldiers are torturing people, a nation to humiliate it and force it to submit to brute force.

Examples of such cruelty against humanity from near history are myriad. Names like Katyn, Auschwitz, Gulag, and Grozny spring to mind, to which Bucha, Irpin and Mariupol have become recent additions. This list is regularly complemented with new places where Russian "liberators" have put down boots.

And it will never be finished if Russian war criminals escape trial this time too, if Russia and its leaders once more succeed in shirking responsibility. Why is the world no longer afraid of another Auschwitz or Germany? Because of the Nuremberg Trials following WWII.

The outcome was not just the punishment of Nazi leaders, it was the entire German people learning of the crimes that had been committed in their name. That is what motivated the Germans' self-cleansing and fostered the realization that something like that must never be allowed to happen again.

Unfortunately, the Russians have been able to continue visiting their savagery on new people without any of their leaders being held responsible. Estonia is and will remain a leader in the initiative to drag Russian war criminals to court this time. Otherwise, this spiral of violence will never end. As put by historian Timothy Snyder, "to become better, a country must lose its last colonial war."

On one hand, Russia demonstrated on February 24, 2022 that its unpredictable nature and aggressive greed make it a threat to all its neighbors and the entire rules-based world order.

On the other, as paradoxical as it sounds, Russia's war has improved regional security. Its miscalculation saw neutral Sweden and Finland throw in with NATO. As a result, the Baltic Sea has become a NATO internal body of water and 1,340 kilometers of land border between NATO and Russia has been added.

By the 21st century, one might expect mankind to have evolved to a point where military strength is not used to redraw national borders and subjugate other states to one's will. Raiding and visiting genocide on neighboring peoples should not be phenomena of our time. Alas, they are.

We must ask ourselves, not just on the eve of European Parliament elections, but every single day, how and why Europe finds itself in such a situation. How have global and especially major European powers' leaders allowed themselves to be blinded by fairy tales of Russian democracy and peace?

How was a level of dependency on Russian raw materials reached where it was forgotten that oil and gas are more than just natural resources, but tools of strategic blackmail for Russia? How will we avoid similar dependency in the future? Answering these questions is largely on the shoulders of the next European Parliament.

Unfortunately, we are meeting these elections in a situation where the momentum liberal democracy found when the walls came down 35 years ago has been delivered a serious setback in Europe and the world.

Researchers tell us that the world has gone back to the year 1986 in terms of the relative importance of democratic states This development, or rather degeneration, looks bad not just on paper and in my speech. It is a development that makes the world less safe. It is a widely known concept that democratic states do not resolve their differences through war.

Controversial tendencies have taken over in Europe in recent years. On one hand, Europe has drifted increasingly to the left. Liberalism and freedoms that have carried Europe are under siege, with increasingly detailed regulation and red tape one of its manifestations.

At the same time, various public opinion polls show that radical right-wing populists are on the rise in Europe, promising voters everything and more if only they could get rid of that pesky EU.

It is not too hard to guess whose interests such talking points serve. But there will always be people who, during difficult times, believe that it's better to go it alone. That is not the case. No one has ever dared attack NATO or the EU, while countries that are not part of these organizations make for tempting targets for the aggressor. Once more, Sweden and Finland did not discard their neutrality lightly or follow baseless fears.

The situation in Europe and the world has once again raised the question of Europe's ability to defend itself. It will also be a key issue for the European Parliament. It is our role and task to convince the Member States and the EU as a whole to considerably boost its defense spending and contribute to the defense industry.

These are not trifling sums that we must invest in security both individually and all together. It will not be easy, and it will not always be popular. But let you be reminded of Sarah Churchill's words just when things are hardest. "In war you must give without keeping count, fight despite your wounds, toil without demanding rest and work without asking to be paid." This – no more and no less – is what we expect from our candidates at the upcoming European Parliament elections.

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