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Lavrov: European values must be worked out on condition of mutual agreement

MOSCOW, February 13, 2:18 /ITAR-TASS/. European states should work out common value in mutual agreement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote in an article published in Thursday’s issue of the Kommersant daily.

“We can’t but agree that the common European home should be cemented by common values,” he wrote. “It is necessary to agree what these values are like and who determines them. We proceed from the idea that such values must be the result of mutual agreement, but not an invention of one particular state or a group of states.”

“The set of basic values that could serve as a basis for common European cooperation was outlined in the documents of the United Nations Organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe,” he reminded. “Obviously, society is a living organism, and its values may change as this society develops. Many approaches practices today in the European Union were considered as unacceptable by these very states some 20-30 years ago. I mean, for example, moral relativism, propagation of overindulgence and hedonism, growing influence of aggressive atheism, waiving traditional values, which have been the moral basis of human development for centuries.”

According to Lavrov, such attitudes “are being promoted with messianic persistence both inside the countries and in relations with neighbours.” “In this connection, I would like to remond that the principles of democracy rest on respect to the opinion of others, first of all,” he noted.

“We all must admit that in their efforts to reach an agreement on basic values, such as respect to the democratic principles of the organization of public life, to human rights and basic freedoms, peoples of Europe must grant each other the right to be different, to preserve their own cultural identity, in full conformity with the universal conventions and declaration in the area of human rights,” Lavrov stressed.