Address by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen to the 21st General Assembly of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions in Oulu on 14.6.2000

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I am pleased to be able to welcome you to Finland and Oulu. This is the first time that the CEMR is holding its General Assembly in northern Europe. I can congratulate you, you have made a good choice of venue.

Local government enjoys a strong and stable status in Finland and people identify strongly with it. Here I speak also from personal experience, having been a member of the Helsinki City Council for many years. Municipalities - either individually or in groups - are responsible for providing citizens with all basic services. They look after schools, kindergartens and health centres. They themselves all organisations they have chosen provide services for the aged and handicapped. Their responsibilities also include infrastructure, such as building and maintaining streets, water and waste water systems and - especially in large cities - electricity and district heating networks. During recent years even the acticity of the municipalities to improve employment has been important. Our system has solid popular and political support.

We in Finland want to further develop this model of society, which is founded on three central principles:

Basic services must be universal - irrespective of where one lives, and generally of income as well;

Services must be of the same standard throughout the country - from Helsinki to Lapland;

Services must be provided either free of charge or for a fee that is moderate relative to income.


As globalisation and other aspects of internationalisation gather strength, it is becoming more and more important to see the right relations between actions on the local, regional, national and international levels. The importance of regional and local government in building Europe has been and remains great: decision making on a level close to citizens is needed as a counterweight to globalisation. The Council of European Municipalities and Regions is a central and most important organisation in its sector. It was the prime mover when the European Union’s Committee of the Regions was being set up. Your central aim is to get municipalities and regions involved when the outlines of European policy are being decided.

The participation and support of citizens are essential in building the future of Europe. People must be able to accept and understand decisions. This is easier to achieve when municipalities and regions are active in the process. Municipalities and regions must be involved in the Union’s self-development. This will help bring the Union closer to citizens.

A dialogue between the Union and various levels of administration in member states is important. The Union is doing important work in the field of regional policy, for example through the structural funds, but this is not enough. Member states must not forget their own regional policies.

Among the themes featuring in the Union discourse, there is one - good governance - that we in Finland feel is very close to us. Good governance makes it possible for democracy to be implemented in practice. It is essential to root out corruption. But that is not enough on its own. We have been calling for more publicity, efficiency and transparency in all administration. Openness is an essential part of a well-functioning democracy. Good contacts not only among the institutions themselves, but also - and above all - between the EU and civil society are, of course, a vital precondition for an efficient system of Union institutions.

This year’s Inter-governmental Conference is extremely important with the future of the Union in mind. The key issues on the agenda are the size of the Commission, the weighting of votes in the Council and broadening the scope of qualified-majority voting. The conference will have to ensure that an enlarging Union is served by a system of institutions that is stable and effective. Along with this there is a need to strengthen equality between member states and ensure that the enlargement process itself is not allowed to lose momentum.

The sizes of the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions when the Union enlarges are likewise under deliberation at the conference. The importance of these institutions as channels through which citizens can exert influence has been constantly growing. The Committee of the Regions is an important actor between local- and EU-level decision making. The local level must be actively and systematically involved in the decision-making process to ensure that the concerns of citizens are noted.

With the accession of Finland and Sweden, the European Union acquired a new kind of northern dimension. Here in Oulu the term "northern" has a very concrete meaning. Right now the sun shines virtually round the clock, but it is a different story in winter. Then it barely peeps above the horizon. No one can get the sun to shine all year round, but we Finns must - through our own actions and those that the Union takes - add brightness to our future prospects.

The bringers of light include the structural funds and the common agricultural policy. In Finland and Sweden, not to mention several other countries, arrangements under national regional policies are likewise essential if balanced regional development is to be safeguarded. National and EU measures must support each other.

The accession of Finland presented the Union with new opportunities also with regard to its external relations and cross-border cooperation. The Union and Russia became next-door neighbours sharing a border 1,300 kilometres long. This immediate closeness will be further strengthened when the Baltic States and Poland join the Union. The purpose of the Northern Dimension policy is to respond to the challenges that this direct border involves.

The Northern Dimension action plan will be presented to next week’s European Council. It is intended to add effectiveness to the Union’s work in collaboration with partners in the North. Never before has the Union adopted such a comprehensive and yet detailed position on questions of cooperation and related challenges in northern regions. We already have a good experience of this kind of cooperation from the Barcelona process.

Being a European is an aspect of people’s everyday reality. That is why the local level must be actively and integrally involved in European decision making. I wish your Assembly success in seeking new vistas of cooperation to build and add stability to Europe.