Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, I would like to welcome you here to the European Parliament. I promise that the will do all it can to achieve close and effective co-operation with your institution. It really cannot be stressed enough that Finland is embarking on its Presidency in quite problematic circumstances. We have to see that a properly functioning Commission is appointed in September, and the Green Group must do all within its power to ensure that the procedures here in Parliament are as realistic as possible, though at the same time thorough. That is something we surely all want to see. Foreign Minister, you said that the Kosovo crisis might prove to be a sort of turning point in EU common foreign and security policy. My group's position is that the European Union must strengthen its common foreign and security policy, but we would hope that Finland, which is a militarily non-aligned State, will emphasise the importance of the non-military aspect of crisis management. It is quite obvious that occasionally human rights in the modern world have to be defended with weapons, but if we want to act wisely and avoid large-scale human and economic suffering and destruction we have to work on a long-term basis and use specifically non-military means to solve future crises. Our group would like to remind everyone that the European Parliament this Spring approved a report recommending the establishment of non-military peacekeeping bodies for the European Union. We are surprised how little the non-military options were spoken of at the Cologne Council meeting, and we hope that during the Finnish presidential term they will be energetically addressed. The European Union is large enough to be able to have an influence on global developments. During the Finnish Presidency, we will be involved in preparations for future world trade talks. It is absolutely vital that this is undertaken in a spirit of openness. We have already seen how civil society is eager to participate in this debate. I am now referring to what happened with the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. I believe you all want to work in such a way that civil society is able to interact openly with the decision makers, when the topic of debate is the relationship between free trade, people's health and the protection of the environment. Our group would like to point out that, during its presidential term, Finland will have ample opportunity to lead Europe towards social and ecological union. We will give you all our support, so that the Directive on an energy tax can finally be issued. We have been preparing it for seven years now. I would imagine we are all starting to become rather impatient with regard to this matter, as it has been so difficult to move the decision-making process along. At the same time it is obviously necessary to strengthen the marketability of labour. Throughout the entire European Union it is possible, for example, to reduce the figures for non-waged labour enabling us to create new jobs once more and thus induce a more vigorous degree of economic activity. Finally I would like to state firmly that the Tampere Council meeting must not simply prove to be a chance to increase police activity and the surveillance of the public. It also has to promote civil rights, as well as improve the status of third country citizens legally resident in the Member States of the European Union. All this must take place in a spirit of openness. We also expect the Commission to start to ease the task of the Finnish Presidency to increase transparency as soon as possible by furnishing Parliament and the Council with information on the public availability of documents. (Applause)

Political group: Verts-ALE