Helsinki, 26/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - In an interview with the Finnish Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, the Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen has expressed concern about the possible outcome of the Convention on the future of Europe, noting that "There are efforts to change the system in a direction where there would be a kind of directorate, and the Commission and small countries would be pushed out of the way". Mr Lipponen fears that "some kind of model, which has been drafted somewhere - and not with very much transparency, will be bulldozed through at the Convention". He said that at the next IGC, Finland would try to go back on the decisions taken in Nice on the weighting of votes on the Council, wanting a double majority system to be introduced (this idea was rejected in Nice, Ed) for Member States and in proportion to their population.
Conceding that the rotating Presidency of the Council of Ministers will not be possible in the future in an enlarged European Union, Mr Lipponen wants balanced reform in the EU to prevent domination of the "small countries" by the large countries. He argued in favour of the Community Method: "I hope that people in Finland would gradually start to understand that inter-governmentalism is not in our interests. I the EU is pushed in the inter-governmental direction, it means that power will move away from the common table and go somewhere else". "Also at stake is the equality of the citizens of the EU. A Finn must be equal to an Italian or a Belgian, for instance", asserts Mr Lipponen. If the final result of the reform of the EU is a constitution for the European Union, Mr Lipponen replied that he has long held the view that the clear division of authority and the strengthening of EU institutions would be in Finland's interests.