I sitt tal tog ambassadör Staffan Herrström avstamp i det stundande svenska EU-ordförandeskapet och pekade bland annat på de positiva lärdomarna i Europa om att integration är en möjlighet och inte ett hot, något som också är relevant för den pågående integrationen i Östafrika.

Läs hela talet vid nationaldagsfirandet nedan (på engelska):

Speech at the National Day Reception June 6th 2009 by Staffan Herrström, Ambassador of Sweden to Tanzania

Two days ago I got back to Tanzania from Sweden. I went there for an unpleasant reason On the other hand: Stockholm – and Sweden – couldn’t be a more pleasant place than right now. Late May, early June.

It is certainly the right time of the year for us Swedes to celebrate our Swedish National Day.

There is a light green colour covering the country,  shimmering in the sunshine. The nights are white. Everything is in blossom. There is a light scent of lilac flowers wherever you go.

Even going to the dentist is an acceptable reason to get a chance to experience that.

Of course Sweden wouldn’t be Sweden if there had not been a touch of 12 degrees, greyish clouds and chilly rainfall as well…

So it was sort of nice to come home to Dar es Salaam last night – again being able to look out over the Indian Ocean admiring the immense beauty of this coast and this country.
Stockholm was also very much covered by election campaign posters and leaflets.

Tomorrow we have elections to the European Parliament. That was affecting the city centre as well as newspapers, TV, radio much more than I could ever imagine.

There is a mentality change to be found in this. Sweden joined European Union as late as 1995. For some time and to some extent we kept standing on the doorstep. We don’t do that any more. Earlier we asked whether we would go to Europe or not. Yes or no. Inside or outside EU. Now we ask where we want Europe to go.

Europe is not they, them and there. It is we and us. 27 countries opening up their borders for each other.

In twentyfour days Sweden will take over the EU Presidency for the rest of the year. Hence, this speech with one main theme. Europe. Not so much Sweden, not so much Tanzania today. Europe is the theme.

And to be even more specific: The lesson that integration – like the European one – is an opportunity and not a threat. An opportunity for growth and increased incomes but not least an opportunity to secure peace worth remembering today 65 years after the D-day invasion in Normandie and to secure democracy worth remembering now 20 years after the fall of the Berlin wall. 

I grew up in a divided Europe. The capital closest to Stockholm is not Oslo, Helsinki or Copenhagen. It is Tallinn in Estonia – but somehow that was out of reach, beyond our mental radar screen.

The fall of dictatorships changed all that. EU was then what brought all of us together,  securing human rights by integrating former dictatorships in a community of democracies. 

I worked for nine years in Sida with these countries and this vision. I left a substantial piece of my heart there, in Eastern Europe.

I have seen how integration works and that it works. 

Which I believe is good news also for Tanzania being so heavily involved in Pan-African and East African integration efforts.

One common market with 500 million people is certainly creating much more jobs and welfare than 27 closed markets would do. And unionwide norms for human rights make a difference if and when they are applied.:”You want to treat prisoners roughly. Sorry, that is not the rules of the game. You want to discriminate against your minorities. Sorry, that is not EU compatible.”

African Union has well formulated an important part of this approach: Go from noninterference to nonindifference.  Tanzania is certainly a driving force in that.

These experiences make a good case for giving major attention to human rights during the Swedish EU Presidency here in Tanzania.

Everything from the rights of vulnerable children, the rights of girls to education, the rights of women to stop fearing domestic violence to citizens’ rights to information.
That right is a topic I always try to raise wherever I go –not only in Tanzania but not least here. The  importance of making transparency the rule and secrecy the rare exception. There is so much to gain from that. Certainly in terms of democracy and certainly in terms of securing the rights of taxpayers to see their money well spent.

I would have liked to believe that you came here primarily to hear what I had to say, thus giving me reason to continue. I realise however that this is rather unlikely.

Therefore we have come to what I have learned in kiswahili to be Mwisho, the end. A useful, often underutilised and sometimes quite popular word. The end of a speech but surely not the end of this evening.

I hope you will get some flavour of Sweden from the food, the slideshow and the Swedish music – like last year exclusively selected by the Herrström family with no attention whatsoever to what you might like to hear. This evening we have taken the privilege to dictate according to our own taste.

Thank you all for coming. And please join me now in a toast for the President of Tanzania, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. And for the King of Sweden Carl  XVI Gustaf.