Mr President, Mrs Halonen, Mr Prodi, we Finns know that we do not give thanks when there are good grounds for doing so, but we are quick to criticise. I will surprise the Finnish representatives of the country to hold the presidency by saying that the Finnish Presidency can already now be termed, in the positive sense, historic. At the Summit conference in Tampere, we included internal and police affairs among Community issues in an attempt to increase citizens’ security. The fight against organised crime, above all against the spread of drugs, will become more effective as the decisions are implemented. At Tampere, we decided to draft a Charter of Fundamental Rights, in which the European Parliament will also be fully involved. The meeting at Helsinki will deal with joint crisis management and the resources to be allocated to it, along with a timetable for this joint action. According to a new opinion poll, this enjoys the support of a clear majority in my country. This step towards a common foreign and defence policy, in close cooperation with NATO, is an important part of civil, economic and political crisis management. The Intergovernmental Conference, at which next year will be decided the institutional changes that are required within the Community as a condition for enlargement, will have its roots in, and receive its agenda from, Helsinki. At Helsinki, the status of the new applicant countries will also be decided, which means that the artificial division in Eastern and Central Europe into better and poorer candidates will end. But is our own house in order at present, and what must the people of those countries trying to join the Community think about this patent protectionism, which undermines the basic work of the Community in the economic sector? What measures might be imposed in time on their relatively low-income citizens and on their companies competing in the Community? For example, Spain still holds back from the all-important creation of the European limited company, the United Kingdom safeguards City jobs by refusing to accept the harmonisation of taxation even as regards the taxation of capital, France would rather go to the Community court than liberalise its electricity market as required by Union legislation, the German Chancellor breaks all the rules of the market economy and rescues a construction company on the brink of bankruptcy in order to gain political kudos in his home country, and the beef war against England continues far beyond the requirements of health. How can we be contemplating enlargement if we are still fighting in the current EU area in a manner that goes against the rules of the Single Market? European competitiveness is not strong now either, the markets in the Community are not functioning correctly and the process whereby differences in consumer goods prices in the EMU area would be evened out has ground to a halt. My examples in no way mean that I exclude the possibility of the rules being broken in my country as well. I only wish to say that the future aims in Helsinki are good ones, but our own European house must also be put in order in accordance with the rules of the Union.

Political group: PPE-DE