President Halonen at the opening of Parliament: ”The great ability to find agreement is needed”

Speaker of the Parliament Sauli Niinistö and President of the Repulic Tarja Halonen at the opening of the 2010 session of Parliamen (Eduskunta). Photo: Lehtikuva

President of the Republic Tarja Halonen opened the 2010 session of Parliament on Wednesday, 3 February. In her opening speech, President Halonen spoke about living as a community and the importance of seeking agreements. ”One of the characteristics of a developed society is the great ability to find agreement - the ability to recognize the interests of different groups and the tensions between them, but also the ability to encourage people to find compromises.” 

According to President Halonen, the collective bargaining that has continued for decades in Finland has allowed the steady and long-term development of prosperity. “In this global world, it is still needed to ensure the sustainable development of man and nature. Agreements may take different forms, but maintaining trust requires common will and action on the part of decision-makers of society and the different parties.”

”Unemployment is wasteful”

President Halonen regards improving employment as Finland’s biggest immediate challenge. ”Unemployment among young people is especially alarming. I myself have raised many times the long-term consequences of prolonged unemployment among young people. All of us surely agree that we simply cannot afford a lost generation.”

President Halonen noted in her speech that a national consensus in managing employment should be achieved very soon.

”The proper functioning of a welfare society requires finances that are based on sufficient revenue and carefully considered expenditure. Unemployment is wasteful. Unemployment absorbs the resources of individuals and society. Focusing on employment helps now and is also an investment in our shared future.”

The lengthening of careers was also raised in the speech. President Halonen reminded that people’s careers can be lengthened at both ends. “Coercion does not help in this situation. In a period of high unemployment, individuals are not willing to accept changes. It is therefore necessary to create confidence in the adequacy of social security and society's ability to really help people get through hard times. The future requires sustainable solutions in social policy and the development of working life content-wise.”

Comprehensive crisis management

In addition, President Halonen discussed in her speech foreign and security challenges and topical crises. In the globalizing world, security challenges are increasingly shared and everything affects everything else. Security is understood as a broad whole in which international cooperation is required to meet interlinked challenges.
Armed conflicts have also become more complex and difficult to manage which has stimulated discussion regarding Finland's possibilities to participate in international crisis management. In Afghanistan, the President and the Government are prepared to propose an increase in participation in the areas of development cooperation as well as civilian and military crisis management.
“This is part of broad international cooperation. I hope that Finland can particularly be involved in improving the position of women and girls in the country.”

The concept of a comprehensive approach in international crisis management shows that it is important to be able to ensure smooth cooperation among different sectors in our own society's preparedness, according to President Halonen. “Since the development of military and non-military service is presently being studied in different groups, I suggested that military and non-military service could include joint training segments particularly at the beginning.” 

• Speech by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen
• Speech by Speaker Sauli Niinistö