Strasbourg, 05/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - Transparency in the way the institutions of the EU do their work; and improvement of this work "immediately", without waiting for any institutional modifications, but at the same time a debate on the future of Europe, to focus both on the constitutional treaty and enlargement (which has, up to now, been a success); the capacity to react to the changes which characterise our time and globalisation in particular, to the challenges of climate change and competitiveness, as well as the problems of internal and external security; more efforts to show the citizens what Europe has to offer them. Here are the broad outlines of the programme for the six months of the Finnish Presidency sketched out by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, speaking before the European Parliament on 5 July (see also EUROPE 9223 and 9224, and also EUROPE 9222 on declarations by Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja and EUROPE 9220 on the indications of the Finnish Permanent Representative to the EU, Eikka Kosonen). I am convinced that the enlarged Union needs a constitutional treaty, added Mr Vanhanen, who pointed out that the Finnish Parliament was to ratify the Constitution during its autumn session, and that the Finnish Presidency would carry out "consultations" with the Member States in order to prepare for the report to be produced by the German Presidency in 2007. The President of the European Council, who generally went down very well with his audience, with the exception of the extreme Left and the Greens, said that Finland's would be a Presidency "turned towards the outside, and turned towards the future", telling them: we hope to improve our cooperation with you still further, not only in the matters covered by co-decision, but also in working towards the objectives of the EU in general (on a particular point, that of the "services" directive, he hoped to see this adopted at second reading). The Finnish Parliament, which celebrates its centenary this year, "has many skills in all areas of European affairs", said the Prime Minister, who emphasised the complementarity of the work of the European Parliament and that of the national parliaments, and their joint ambition to "reinforce democracy within the EU". Rejecting any "pessimistic discourse", Mr Vanhanen concluded: let us act, "let us not wait for better times, the time is now, and it is here". Taking the floor, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, particularly welcomed the emphasis laid by the President of the Council on the enlargement of the EU, reiterating that this is a "precondition for a powerful Europe". On the subject of Turkey, Mr Barroso stressed the need to be "open, honest and fair", which means that both sides must keep their commitments: in the case of Turkey, this particularly means respect for the Protocol of Ankara, he pointed out. Mr Barroso also lent his "strongest support" to the priority assigned by the Finnish Presidency to relations with Russia, particularly, but not only, in the field of energy, and pointed out that the Commission had just proposed a new agreement for a "strategic partnership" with Moscow (see EUROPE 9224).
Whilst he enjoyed the support of the majority in the MEPs, Matti Vanhan nonetheless had to deal with criticism from the Greens/EFA and the GUE/NGL, and even some fairly vicious attacks from the extreme Right: Constitution, Turkish accession and relations with Russia were the subjects which were mentioned most frequently, by his supporters as well as by his detractors. Furthermore, several MEPs took the opportunity offered by the debate to call for the European Parliament no longer to have its seat in Strasbourg. Welcoming the cooperation between successive Presidencies, Hans-Gert Pöttering¸ the leader of the EPP-ED group, said: Europe it is "like a chain, every link must be strong". The Finnish Presidency's ideas on relations with Russia are good, but "let us cease this policy of accolades and slapping each other on the back", and let us talk about human rights with Moscow, he said, to applause from his colleagues. The CDU MEP also proposed the creation of a working group to prepare for the events planned for 25 March 2007 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome: a Summit will be held in Berlin, but something should also be organised in Rome, and I think that the Catholic Church thinks so too, he added, which attracted ironic remarks from Daniel Cohn-Bendit (for the EPP-ED group, French MEP Françoise Grossetête was considerably more critical, criticising the President of the European Council for a speech which "lacked soul", which was just a "catalogue, a hotch potch").
The President of the Socialist group, Martin Schulz, who started his speech in Italian in tribute to the "squadra azzurra" (which had beaten Germany in a World Cup match the previous evening in Dortmund), welcomed the priority granted by the Presidency to the area of liberty, security and justice, with this warning: these are things which are very close to the heart of the citizens, and so let us use the "passerelle" clause, allowing us to make this policy more democratic, as the opportunity to do this already exists in the Nice Treaty, and this would not be "cherry picking" from the Constitutional Treaty. The German Social Democrat also warned against the presence of populist or downright racist parties within the governments of the EU: yesterday, an MEP whose son is the deputy Prime Minister of Poland (Maciej Giertych: see EUROPE 9225, also on the subject of the letter written by Mr Schulz and Mr Rasmussen to the new Slovakian Prime Minister) spoke in favour of pro-Franco policy in the plenary, he said (Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the Party of European Socialists spoke of the hope he has invested in the Social Summit planned for October). With the Finnish Presidency, "liberal values" will be defended in Europe, said Graham Watson, President of the ALDE group, who pointed out that Finland is in the "top league" in the fields of education, innovation and research. The British Liberal Democrat (who ended his speech in Finnish) particularly welcomed the anticipated progress on transparency, which is a way to make progress in democracy in Europe, and he also said that "the time has come" to bring more democracy into the area of liberty, security and justice. Instead of giving us a "situation summary which we could just as well read in the newspapers", you should get to grips with the reality of Europe, and this reality also means the presence of extreme Right-wing parties in European governments, said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-president of the Greens/EFA group, referring in particular to Slovakia and Poland. As for Russia, he added that Europe is giving it "the impression that it is walking to heel behind Mr Putin for fear of losing its energy; but when we are afraid of losing our energy, we have no energy at all". As for immigration, the German Green criticised Mr Vanhanen for talking about illegal immigration alone: "let us talk first of all about organising legal immigration, and if we are not capable of doing so, then we have no basis to sort out illegal immigration!" Esko Seppänen of Finland, speaking on behalf of the GUE/NGL, told his Prime Minister that he did not have the support of his people, who "do not want to see a militarisation of Europe", and do not want a European Constitution either (he quoted a recent survey which found that only 22% of the Finns are in favour). Brian Crowley, President of the UEN group, praised Finland's ability to build good relations with the countries on the eastern border of the EU, which is a "key aspect", in his view. What you envisage for Russia is more than just energy cooperation, it is all part of "geopolitical stability", said the Irish MEP. Who do you really represent, Nigel Farage, co-president of the Independence and Democracy group, asked Mr Vanhanen, noting that according to the latest Eurobarometer survey, only 38% of the Finns felt that Europe was a good thing for their country. You represent the class of "professional politicians", who all want more Europe, said the UK Independence Party MEP, who believes that if it was genuinely "democratic", then the Finnish government would hold a referendum on the Constitution (Finland itself had proposed this during the Convention which drafted the Constitution, put in Baastian Belder, a Dutch member of the same group). Over on the extreme Right, Frank Vanhecke (Vlaams Belang, Belgium) accused Finland of ratifying a "dead Constitution" and of "imposing Turkish accession, which the Europeans do not want". "So stop talking to us about democracy and respect to the citizens", he concluded.
"The constitution is the most important thing, and its ratification is the best present you could make us for the centenary anniversary of your Parliament", German Social Democrat Evelyne Gebhardt told Mr Vanhanen. She went on to praise the Presidency's ambition of adopting the "services" directive at second reading (Ms Gebhardt, who is the Parliament's rapporteur on this subject, warned that they would have to stay as close as possible to the compromise reached by the Parliament). Guido Sacconi (Democratici di sinistra, Italy), rapporteur on the REACH legislation on chemical products, made the same wish, telling Mr Vanhanen: you would like to get this adopted at second reading under your Presidency, and I'm sure that this is possible, but if so, "we must make progress, a bit, but we need to get going: there are people who will advise you not to budge an inch (...), but I am prepared to move". During the debate, several MEPs (and President Barroso) referred to the World Cup football. One of these was Alexander Stubb (EPP-ED, Finland, who joked: sometimes, you can be competitive in football but not in the economy, or you are competitive in the economy but not in football, and so if you can be competitive in both, let us make sure that our team is in the World Cup 2008.
"The Europe of results is not the alternative to the Europe of values, but it is the way to gain accession to the Europe of values", concluded José Manuel Barroso.
In an enlarged Europe, "and we are already in an enlarged Europe, we need institutional reform": this is the position of the Commission, Mr Barroso acknowledged to Martin Schulz, who criticised him for having said that they could function with the Treaty of Nice (at the same time, he took pains to point out that on the basis of the existing Treaty, better results could be attained, in the field of justice and home affairs, for example). As to the future strategic partnership planned with Russia, Mr Barroso reassured his audience that such a partnership would be possible only as long as certain values were respected.