HELSINKI: Finland took over the presidency of the European Union yesterday with a pledge to recover some of the bloc’s credibility with voters by focusing on transparency and efficiency in the absence of far-reaching institutional reform.
Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said on Friday night when Austria’s stint at the EU helm ended that he saw no breakthrough in efforts to salvage the bloc’s draft constitution before possible elections in the Netherlands later this year and French presidential elections in early 2007.
But building on efforts by Austria, Vanhanen said he would work towards more transparency of the EU’s workings and institutions, and the promotion of innovation and competitiveness as well as the defence of the environment.
He would also seek a consensus on enlarging the Union by admitting new members. “We need a Europe of results which yields added value,” he said.
Helsinki is planning to open up ministerial meetings to the public by putting results of the talks on the Internet, a step agreed on by the 25-nation bloc last month.
But Vanhanen cautioned that this would not mean giving up all confidentiality in EU talks.
European Union leaders have given themselves until the second half of 2008 - when France presides EU meetings - to figure out what to do with the constitution, whose future was cast in doubt after French and Dutch voters rejected the text last year.
The EU’s member states have asked Germany and France to lead the way out of the constitutional deadlock, but not this year or even next. “Before the Dutch and French elections we don’t have a possibility of new conclusions,” Vanhanen said.
Finland is expected to become the 16th EU member to ratify the constitution later this year when its parliament votes on the draft.
Helsinki will be able to make its mark in further negotiations on EU enlargement, where the Nordic country hopes to clarify what some EU members, who are reticent about admitting Turkey and other hopefuls in the Balkans, mean by the EU’s “absorption capacity”.
Turkey agreed last year to extend a customs union to the EU’s 10 newest members, but insisted it did not amount to recognition of the Greek Cypriot authorities.
“This will become a serious problem in the negotiations and it can even jeopardise further negotiations,” Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja has warned.
EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, along with all EU commissioners, is expected in Helsinki on Sunday for talks on the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Saint Petersburg and the EU summit in October which will be held at Lahti northwest of the Finnish capital.
Following its takeover Finland is to publish every Wednesday an update on European news in Latin as it did when it first held the EU presidency in 1999.
Yesterday, its first news bulletin read ‘Finnis Unioni Europaeae praesidentibus in morem venit’ (The Finnish presidency of the European Union has started).
The document which was drawn up by university professors continued: “Accedit, quod usus linguae Latinae cultui humano Europaeo honorem habet et de radicibus societatis Europaeae usque ad antiquitatem classicam pertinentibus omnes commonefacit.”
The only other version of the bulletin was in Finnish, which read: “Latinankielen káytt on mys kunnianosoitus eurooppalaiselle sivistykselle ja muistutus eurooppalaisen yhteiskunnan antiikkiin ulottuvista juurista”.
In English it would translate as, “The use of Latin is to pay homage to European civilisation and a reminder of the roots of European society, which go back to classical ancient times.”
Miia Lahti, the chief editor of the Finnish presidency’s website, said that in 1999 news in Latin had been “much appreciated and we decided to renew the experience.”
Finland, which has a population of about 5mn, joined the EU in 1995, along with Austria and Sweden. It will be succeeded as president by Germany on January 1. – AFP