Finns to put forward own candidate for EU "group of wise men"
Vanhanen: candidate exists, name not to be revealed
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Finland is promoting its own candidate for the group of "wise men" proposed for the European Union by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The purpose of the group would be to consider what Europe would be like and what its tasks would be from 2020 to 2030.
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) said on Tuesday at a lunch for political journalists that Finland is in favour of setting up such a group. In his view, Finland already has a candidate for the group, but he would not disclose the name because he thought that doing so might prevent Finland from getting a representative on the group.
In late August Sarkozy proposed the formation of such a team, with 10-12 members, which would put forward its ideas before the European parliament elections of 2009.
Several groups of wise persons have pondered the future of the EU. Members of such groups have generally been former politicians.
Vanhanen says that the members of the group proposed by President Sarkozy would come primarily from outside politics. One reason for this is to keep the member states from squabbling over seats.
Vanhanen feels that the mission of the wise persons should be sufficiently broad, and it should not overlap with any other EU processes.
He feels that the group should also consider ways to secure EU competitiveness and to increase its political weight.
It would also need to consider operations of the EU in issues such as slowing global warming, environmental and energy matters, immigration, and the fight against terrorism.
Vanhanen says that he had already put forward his priorities to Portugal, the holder of the EU Presidency, and to France. A decision on setting up the group of the wise is to be decided at the December meeting of the European Council.
Vanhanen said that he has followed the recent public debate on foreign and security policy in Finland. He commented that the statements fall within the boundaries of the government's policy programme, but he has been surprised at the focus on war. He pointed out that the war has been over for more than 60 years, and that there is no talk of the threat of war in other parts of Europe.
He also reiterated his view that issues being discussed in the government should not be brought out into public prematurely. The Prime Minister noted that airing the differing views of ministers in public leads to a situation in which politicians are labelled "heroes" or "losers" according to whose position prevails in the end.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 26.9.2007 - TODAY |
 Finns to put forward own candidate for EU "group of wise men" |
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