Finland's Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen dismissed on Monday the criticism presented by the Financial Times daily, according to which the invitation to the Russian leader Vladimir Putin to take part in the informal EU Summit to be held this week in Lahti was "a blunder".
The newspaper claimed that according to the unnamed diplomatic sources interviewed in Brussels the Lahti meeting would give "Mr Putin first-hand proof that the EU cannot act as a single powerful negotiating partner".
"In Russia the EU energy policy debate has been closely followed. They know what the situation is", Vanhanen told Helsingin Sanomat yesterday afternoon outside his official residence while waiting for the arrival of the new Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves for an official visit.
"The fact that the meeting will take place creates pressure within the EU to speak with one voice", Vanhanen argues. In his view the lunch meeting before confronting Putin will give the EU leaders the chance to find that common voice.
The FT article also criticised the timing of Putin's visit so soon after the murder of political journalist Anna Politkovskaya and in the middle of the crisis between Russia and Georgia.
"If we let topical issues worry us, there will never be the right time to meet", Vanhanen responded.
"The Finnish approach - even in the wider sense - is that we are not afraid to tackle problems. We talk them out."
"Apparently it was a good thing that the relationship with Russia became a priority during Finland's EU Presidency, especially if such fears towards our eastern neighbour are a commonplace within the Union", noted Vanhanen.
