Finland ready to let go of EU constitution

Fixing present treaties nevertheless considered labourious

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Finland is ready to let go of the proposed constitutional treaty of the European Union, which was signed in 2004 and passed by the Finnish Parliament. The Finnish government is now willing to move the key reforms of the EU that have been agreed upon into the present treaties, "if this is a precondition for the achievement of an overall solution to treaty reform".
     The government's view emerges from a statement issued to Parliament on Wednesday, outlining Finnish basic views on EU Constitutional negotiations. The fate of the treaty and further efforts are to be discussed at the EU summit scheduled for late this month.
     
The Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee asked the government on Friday to give a report on the situation with the constitution so that all Members of Parliament might acquaint themselves with the matter. The report, which was issued last week, had been declared confidential, because it contained information on how flexible Finland was willing to be in the negotiations. That information was removed from Wednesday's paper.
     According to the report, Finland is in favour of the idea that the EU summit would convene an Inter-Governmental Conference to continue the reform of the EU's main treaties.
     Finland's basic starting point is that the content of the treaty should be kept as intact as possible, and to open it as little as possible to new negotiations. Finland, therefore, would prefer to adhere to the existing constitutional treaty, because fixing and clarifying the present treaties is seen to be difficult work. As Finland sees it, the clarification negotiations would probably have to be given up.
     
Finland feels that the IGC should agree that all reforms of the constitutional treaty that are not part of the task given to the IGC should be considered to have been agreed upon. They would be shifted as such to the present treaties of the EU, if the summit decides to start fixing the old treaties and gives up on a single unified constitution.
     Finland feels that the present pillar structure of the EU needs to be dismantled in any case, and the reform of the EU's bodies, which has been agreed upon, must be implemented.
     Finland also takes a "flexible" attitude toward the symbols of the EU, seeing no need to state in the treaties that the EU has a flag, an anthem, a currency, or a special Europe Day.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  COMMENTARY: What´s in a name, even for the EU Constitution? (8.4.2006)
  Difficult task of reviving EU constitution (23.1.2007)
  Grand Committee members favour Finnish ratification of EU constitution (7.4.2006)

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