New problems have arisen in the planning for the most massive single event of the Finnish European Union Presidency in the second half of next year. Planners are busily looking for a new date for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), because a number of Asian heads of state will be unable to attend the Helsinki summit planned for September 14th - 15th.
Ten of the leaders of 13 Asian countries involved in ASEM plan to attend the summit of the non-aligned movement in Havana on September 15th - 16th. There is little hope of changing the time of that meeting, because it is linked with the 80th birthday celebrations of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Finnish officials learned of the conflict of the two meetings at the United Nations summit in late September. Since then, the EU has been holding negotiations with Indonesia and South Korea on a new date for the ASEM summit.
Finland has proposed holding the meeting in mid-July 2006, when the Helsinki Fair Centre would be available as a venue. The Finnish EU Presidency begins at the beginning of July.
Discussions are continuing, and it is not yet certain that the meeting will be rescheduled, says Hanna Lehtinen of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Finnish diplomats in Asian capitals have worked hard in recent weeks to expedite the necessary decisions. A final decision on the matter is in the hands of Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, who resolved earlier to hold the summit in Helsinki instead of Tampere, as was originally planned.
Changing the time of the summit would mean that the planned Business Forum and related NGO events would also have to be rescheduled.
