PM Vanhanen: Finland to seek compromise on EU enlargement

Goal of EU Presidency to promote more efficient decision-making

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Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) says that the enlargement of the European Union is one of the key questions for the Finnish turn at the European Union presidency, which begins in July.
      Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, Vanhanen said that Finland has set as its goal that the present member states should again achieve consensus on the enlargement question at the summit to be held in December.
      Vanhanen briefed MPs on the goals for the Finnish Presidency, and the issue was debated before Parliament began its summer recess.
     
The proposed constitution for the EU, which was put on hold at the recent summit, will also come up during the next six months.
      Finland plans to turn what has been seen as a passive pause for thought into an active period, and to start to ponder how the process could be made to go forward. Vanhanen said that Finland plans to hold bilateral discussions with all EU countries on the fate of the agreement.
      One of the goals on Finland’s list will be the development of EU competitiveness and its foreign policy, new treaty arrangements with Russia, the increase in openness, and greater efficiency in decision-making on police matters.
      Increased efficiency was a major theme for Vanhanen, who feels that inefficiency in decision-making is a key problem with the EU.
      Another major problem in his view is that citizens do not feel that the body is necessary.
     
"The EU should concentrate on that which is significant, and it should be efficient in those significant things", Vanhanen explained.
      Parliamentarians largely agreed with what Vanhanen said - not even the opposition parties found fault with his views.
      The Centre Party’s Antti Kaikkonen was enthusiastic, saying that with Vanhanen’s good government working, Finland will succeed in the EU leadership as well as it did in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. "We are facing a kind of hard rock Presidency", he said.
      Mocking shouts of "Wow", and "Halleluiah" were heard from the opposition benches.
     
Constitutional Law Committee chairman Kimmo Sasi (Nat. Coalition Party) took the opportunity to respond to the accusations of Parliamentary Speaker Paavo Lipponen, who had charged Sasi with undermining the position of the President.
      Sasi noted that under the constitution, it is the government, in the final instance, that decides on all EU matters, including who represents Finland at EU summits.
      "The President can certainly have a role", Sasi said. "The President can support our overall EU policy and help the government."
      Sasi suspects that after Lipponen’s intervention, the debate over the powers of the President and the government will have a negative effect on the Finnish EU Presidency. He also found no reason for criticism in his own actions.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Speaker of Parliament criticises debate on President´s role in EU affairs (21.6.2006)

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