In my assessment, the Finnish system is worth preserving, although it needs to be reformed to allow for changing times. Thus the tax rate will be kept somewhat higher than in countries with a different system. Tax rates can be misleading when people have to pay for their services and social security in other ways. In the United States, for example, it is all different from Finland. In this country, we spend 7 per cent of GDP on health care, but the figure in the United States is nearly twice that - and yet citizens do not have equal access to services.
Equality is very specifically the foundation on which our welfare state has been built.
Northern Dimension part of Union policy During Finland's term at the helm of the EU in the second semester of 1999, it seemed that the Northern Dimension so dear to the Finns' hearts was at least partly buried under the debris of bigger current problems like the crisis in Kosovo. The Union is also enlarging eastwards more purposefully than earlier on the basis of decisions reached in Helsinki. The Northern Dimension has advanced in stages. First of all a lot of work had to be done within the Union to define its interests in the North. Finland's underlying premise from the very beginning was that the framework would have to be the Union as a whole rather than one catering for cooperation between a few northern members.