FINLAND: The EU should amend joint proposals by France, Britain and Germany for closer defence integration under the planned EU constitution, according to the Finnish Foreign Minister.
Mr Erkki Tuomioja yesterday said Finland, which is not a member of NATO, did not support the "structured co-operation" under which a core group of states would be allowed to co-operate more closely in developing military capabilities.
Under the draft proposed by Italy on Saturday, based on ideas from Europe's big three states, a pioneer group would be launched if most EU states approved, with all states which met specific capabilities criteria free to join later.
"This closed group of founding states would not be in line with the openness that should be the goal," Mr Tuomioja said. "I think this \ will be changed.
He said the articles on defence co-operation were not needed and everything could be done on the basis of existing agreements.
EU leaders are due to finalise a first constitution for an enlarged 25-nation union at a summit in Brussels late next week. The draft includes a mutual defence clause, recognising NATO as the foundation of collective defence for its members, which include most current or future EU states.
Mr Tuomioja said his country would not accept any formula that bound it to a military alliance. He said Finland, Sweden and Ireland would put an alternative proposal under which requesting or offering defence help would be decided separately each time.
"I could support the EU's mutual defence guarantees if they would be in effect independent of NATO, but this is not realistic at this point," Mr Tuomioja added.
France and Poland meanwhile have failed to narrow their differences over the proposed constitution, but the French Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, stressed their historic friendship in the run-up to EU enlargement.