Brussels, 12/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - After a meeting with the Finnish president, Tarja Halonen, in Helsinki, René van der Linden, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said he was delighted that the future Finnish presidency of the European Union considers improving relations between the EU and Russia a priority. Mr van der Linden, who also met President Putin in Moscow on 29 May, said that, in recent years, the European Union has let several chances in its relations with Russia go by but the fact that the Finnish EU Council Presidency is occurring at the same time as the Russian presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is an excellent opportunity to make up for this. He said more constructive relations between the EU and Russia based on mutual trust is vital for Europe as a whole.
Mr van der Linden also called on Finland and Russia to take advantage of this coincidence to make talks move forward on a memorandum of agreement between the Council of Europe and the European Union. He calls on them to grant the parliamentary dimension the place that it deserves. Announcing that the CEPA and the European Parliament planned to reach a common position on the content of the memorandum, he again stressed that the EU should avoid duplication, mainly taking account of the Council of Europe's activity in the field of human rights. EUROPE recalls that the EU considers this text to be frozen until the end of the Russian presidency of the Council of Europe (EUROPE 9202).
Mr van der Linden met with Ms Halonen and the Finnish foreign minister, Erkki Tuomioja, on the occasion of centenary celebrations for parliamentary reform in Finland.