The Baltic states in Europe problems and prospects

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have a special position in the community of states which have emerged from the ruins of the Soviet empire: together with countries such as Poland the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia they have belonged from time immemorial to Central Europe, but unlike these countries, they were directly annexed by the USSR and consequently, now suffers from its burdensome political, social and institutional legacy. This fact is compounded by an extremely vulnerable situation in the field of external security. The aggregation of factors explain why the Baltic States hair a strong desire to belong to not only the European Union (EU) but also to NATO. Western countries, however, believe that they have to show special consideration for Russia with respect to airy integration into the Atlantic alliance by ruling out NATO membership for certain former constituent regions of the Soviet Union. The German diplomat Hans-Dieter Lucas outlines the associated problems in the following article. The author attaches particular importance to the fact, which applies in general to this journal, that he expresses his exclusively personal views.