FINLAND:Ahead of her three-day visit to Ireland , Finnish president Tarja Halonen talks to Derek Scallyabout Russia, the EU and the future of the reform treaty
President Tarja Halonen of Finland has rejected a claim by former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing that the EU reform treaty is "practically unchanged" from the constitutional treaty drafted under his stewardship. "I don't want to use hard words with Giscard but . . . I don't fully agree with his statement," Halonen told The Irish Times.
Ahead of her three-day state visit to Ireland beginning tomorrow, Halonen urged closer co-operation between EU authorities and a more constructive approach to EU relations with Russia.
The president decided to press ahead with the state visit after expressing her shock and sadness at this week's school shooting in Finland.
"I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims in the shooting incident and express my sympathy for those injured and to all those touched by this tragedy," she said.
Giscard's remarks last week in an open letter to several newspapers annoyed officials in Helsinki. After all, they just wanted a treaty to create a more effective European Union and were puzzled by the Frenchman's comparisons to 1776 and America's founding fathers.
"We were astonished when the convention [ the European Convention - the body of more than 100 politicians chaired by Giscard that drafted the 2004 EU constitution] started to work with talk of the 'atmosphere of Philadelphia'," she said. "When the word 'constitution' was used, we asked our envoys: 'What are they talking about?'."
By rejecting the treaty because of its constitutional trappings, French and Dutch voters also dealt a blow to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, put on the agenda by the Finnish EU presidency in Tampere in 1999.
As Finnish minister for justice at the time, Halonen was central to those talks.
Today she is circumspect about the fact that the UK, the Republic and others negotiated opt-outs in the revised treaty. "We would love to see [ Ireland] there but that is their decision. I'm content to see Ireland take its own way on basic rights," she said.
Halonen (64) became Finland's first woman head of state in 2000. Originally a trade-union lawyer, she was re-elected four times as a Social Democrat MP and held the health, justice and foreign affairs portfolios before becoming president.
Now into her second presidential term, she remains a popular figure. Married to an academic, she chuckles at the memory of her last brush with Ireland: at her stepson's wedding, his bride dispensed with the traditional bridal waltz in favour of a blast of Riverdance.
"We Finns feel very close to Irish people whether you like it or not," she joked.
After difficult recession years in the 1990s, Finland has adapted to the globalised world without sacrificing the Nordic model that combines economic dynamism with social justice and solidarity.
But after 12 harmonious years in the EU, a cloud is looming in the form of €100 million in annual subsidies paid by Helsinki to farmers in southern Finland. Finns believed these subsidies were agreed in perpetuity during accession negotiations. Not so, says the European Commission, calling for the subsidies to end next month.
The disagreement could escalate ahead of upcoming agricultural talks, with Finnish farmers, opposition and some MEPs demanding that the government use this to bury Finland's "softie" image in Brussels, perhaps even by linking the issue to national ratification of the reform treaty.
The row reflects a growing disillusionment about the EU in Finland and is one Halonen suggests will require an empathetic approach from Brussels.
"In Finland and in Ireland, which history tells us had difficulties feeding their people, it is very difficult to say 'stop farming' and even to say that your government is not okay to help you," she said. "This [ issue] is very much a combination of the practical issues and also the emotional issues."
She calls for more honesty and less finger-wagging in the EU's dealings with Russia. "Of course the Russians have their own problems but Russia-EU co-operation is a positive thing and issues like democracy, human rights and rule of law are not just particular problems of Russia. The word 'corruption', for instance, is neither a Russian nor Estonian, Latvian nor Hungarian word."
While EU-Russian relations will be dominated by energy issues, Finland is building a new nuclear power plant to guarantee energy security.
As an MP, Halonen voted against nuclear energy, but as president she accepts parliamentary decisions on it, with one proviso: "We need all possible energy resources and we should do our utmost to reach the most balanced result."