Brussels, 28/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - In an article published on 28 October in the Financial Times, the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Erkki Tuomioja said that Finland wanted to strengthen CFSP, which in turn would mean strengthening the ESDP but reasserted his opposition to two articles proposed by the European Convention and which tend to be rather divisive: structured cooperation and the mutual defence clause. According to these proposals, a small group is expected to act as a "vanguard without trying or even wanting to involve the Union as a whole". It is critical of the latter and adds that, "it is difficult to understand how splitting the Union serves to strengthen Europe's global standing. Suspicious minds may well wonder whether the proposal has less to do with defence than with the ambition of a core group of countries to retain a role as guardians of the true European faith - a faith that the 10 countries joining next year are perceived to threaten". On the arguments about flexibility that the existence of "core Member States would bring, the Minister replies that they already have enough flexibility in the ESDP and that they would not all be building aircraft carriers or taking part in every future EU operation. "We cannot allow a group of countries to use the EU trade mark without a mandate from the EU", Mr Tuomioja was keen to point out, worried at the role of NATO, the only power to provide guarantees of collective security in "Europe today. He warned that, "If Finland were to give up its military non-alignment - a move for which there is neither need nor popular support in Finland today - it is to NATO we would send our application. But saying no to the proposed security guarantees does not rule our developing the constitution's solidarity clause in a way acceptable to us all".