Helsinki, 06/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Finnish, Danish and Swedish Prime Ministers have written to the President of the European Council, José Maria Aznar, with regard to the European Council of Barcelona. They have asked Mr Aznar to ensure that the main task at the summit ensures that the economic and social reform agenda in the EU "regains momentum". According to Scandinavian leaders, the process is loosing steam at a time when the difficult economic situation makes economic reform more crucial than ever. Messrs. Lipponen, Rasmussen and Persson are displeased with the Union's inability to reach an agreement on a common EU patent.
The three Heads of government presented their demands to the press in Helsinki where Paavo Lipponen declared, "We have come to the conclusion that we need to intensify our traditional Nordic co-operation, but without becoming a block within the European Union". On the subject of energy market liberalisation, Göran Persson stated that, "I think this is one of the most important issues to be discussed at Barcelona, and hopefully we will be able to take a step forward, but I am not over-optimistic" (see yesterday's edition of EUROPE page 8 on the subject of ECOFIN Council conclusions). Mr Perrson also sent out a clear message attacking the problem of companies that were making huge profits on their protected markets which they then drew on to compete with companies operating on the deregulated markets. His Finnish counterpart described this as being, "like having a big guy and a small guy in a boxing match, and the little guy should only box with one hand and the big guy with both hands."
In their letter, the three Scandinavian countries also mentioned the need to make progress in the European finance market, rules on take over bids, research and "transparency". The Danish Minister of European Affairs, Bertel Haarder (former MEP), announced that in the second half of this year when Denmark takes over the Presidency of the European Council of Europe, they would hold a number of public meetings on these subjects.