President Halonen opens final annual session of parliamentary term

President of the Republic Tarja Halonen opened the final annual session of the current parliamentary term at the Eduskunta on Tuesday 5 February 2002. In her opening address, the President noted that the
legislature still had a lot of matters, some of them very demanding, to deal with. One example of decisions with far-reaching consequences was the possible construction of additional nuclear power capacity, which would receive a lot af attention in the course of the spring.

President Halonen noted that her cooperation with the Eduskunta during the past year had included also awkward moments. However, the new Constitution had already demonstrated that it functions effectively
and what mattered most was to preserve the spirit of cooperation that the Constitution requires.

With regard to the international arena, the President said that in interaction between cultures there was a need for common moral codes, examples of which already existed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the conventions based on it. The President expressed her satisfaction that Prime Minister Lipponen had announced the Government would try before the end of the spring to agree on a timetable to increase the development cooperation appropriation to the 0.7 per cent of GNP recommended by the UN. "The United Nations and its special agencies need our support to strengthen humane globalisation", the President pointed out.