Parliamentary Assembly

Mr Halonen, President of Finland

Sometimes a lack of natural resources can provide other opportunities. You know that we lack oil or gas and these other natural resources – we have just had a nice cold winter with a lot of snow. The only capital we have in which to invest is the people. Like all other Nordic countries, we have a certain kind of collective responsibility because of these circumstances and we want to guarantee the future of the next generation. In that way, our long history has helped us to understand that education is the key. We have a long tradition of a very broad education, meaning that every boy and girl will be guaranteed an education free of charge. The quality is also important. The education of teachers has been the key answer to that. The Programme for International Student Assessment survey showed that my country is among the best in the world and very often the best. But we are still not happy because we want this to be continued with secondary education providing the opportunity to take up education, further education, employment or training. In that way, the young ones will consider that they were full members of society.

Secondly, I always say to the younger generation, “Be happy that you have the best education ever in our history but your education will be old-fashioned much sooner than it was for your parents. So be prepared for lifelong learning.” I think that this is the next step for all of us in Europe.

International comparisons show that the education system in Finland and other Nordic countries when it comes to hard global competition is a very good resource for getting not-so-bad results.

Mr Halonen, President of Finland

I think it is the same problem whatever the society. It is natural to love your own country but to see also the experience of different nations is a real richness of Europe. With globalisation, every country is too small to be on its own. The best way to tell this to our people is to say that all European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, are not big in terms of global comparison. This is hard to explain because everybody thinks that their own home is the best; they want to close the windows and doors and be happy. But that is no longer possible in the globalised world. We benefit greatly from international co-operation, but it takes a lot of time to work together, which is the only way to achieve better harmony in the future. You are all members of parliament and experts in your own country; I would be very happy if you could exchange views and experiences and if we could learn from each other. Let us learn from the best practices and try to avoid the worst implementations.

Mr Halonen, President of Finland

There are different signals. The European Court of Human Rights has been one of the Council of Europe’s best success stories. People know that sad stories can have happy endings but we also know that in many of these cases it would be better to explain to people in our member countries that they will not get a positive result. We have to solve this in different ways. Let us be happy that people have become active, but let us be more active in finding national, local and common solutions to these problems. I do not think that we should try to stop the flow of these requests to the Court because then we will hide the need for new reforms, but we should study more which cases and from which countries most of the appeals come, and then try to find a solution.

I sincerely encourage the Human Rights Commissioner to work in close co-operation with the Court in such a way that we can find the key issues. When member States have ratified the necessary conventions, we can also start to reform the Court. I am optimistic that we can find a fast track to reform. Please remember that the good side of this request by our citizens is that they have found the importance of the rule of law. So, by working at a local and national level, and with the help of the Human Rights Commissioner and that of the Court, we will get a more positive answer than just trying to cut costs.

Mr Halonen, President of Finland

Let us take first the question of Europe itself and the area of the Council’s member countries. It would be nice to see the miracle, but I do not think that we will. It seems a long time ago – the early 1990s – since we saw the rapid enlargement of the Council of Europe. But in historical terms, the building of a new democracy in those countries – countries that are now members of the Council of Europe, and of the European Union – has taken a very short time. The political system is working in most of those countries quite well, but it takes much longer to educate people about good governance and the rule of law and to establish a good civil service. These are important issues.

Countries that are not members of the European Union have the same rights, and some of them have done a very good job in this regard. Norway – Mr Jagland’s country – is an excellent example of a high-quality country that is outside the European Union, and so is Switzerland. Those are good examples of countries that take a different approach. I very much encourage you to work with newer members such as Ukraine, and please do not isolate Belarus, for example.

I know that your programme addresses near-neighbourhood regions such as northern Africa and the Middle East. The question of what constitutes legal and illegal immigration poses difficulties, as does the issue of trafficking people. We cannot just close the doors, because we do not want to live in a fortress. We have to work together with our neighbours in such a way as to create a more harmonious place to live.

In a global future, the populations of Europe and the USA will increase by little more than 10%. You might say to me that our economies constitute about 70% of the global economy, but you know that the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – and some others are becoming economically more important. It is high time that we created a more harmonious world in order to save the planet and protect generations to come.

Yes, we have to concentrate very much on our own member States, but please do not think that the world stops outside the borders of Europe.

Mr Halonen, President of Finland

I am not trying to flatter you just because you are the Parliamentary Assembly – I held ministerial positions, including as Minister for Foreign Affairs – for a long time so I am familiar with the ministerial side – but the Assembly is the best place to discuss such issues. Many of you represent your own parliaments, and you also have all your own contacts here with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, so there are different ways in which you can act. You know how elections work. Of course, ministers make good critics and they are democratic, but they need their colleagues.

My advice to you is to take primary responsibility for the democratic system, to draw attention to the difficulties that may arise in certain countries and to work together with the OSCE so that you can find more effective ways to monitor elections. The media are the watchdog of free and fair elections, but as we see in many countries, not everything that gets printed in the newspapers is true. Let us be realistic and pragmatic and try to achieve better co-operation with the European Union, the United Nations and other actors, so that we can achieve a more effective result. Please do not wait for the miracle; it will take time.

Mr Halonen, President of Finland

That is a good question from the French! We have a different opinion when it comes to the politics of energy. Finland is one of the countries that have recently built nuclear power plants. When I was a member of parliament, I voted against that, but then came the Kyoto Protocol and many MPs in Finland and other countries recognised that nuclear power could be a way to solve the energy issue for the time being. However, there are serious consequences. We know that there is a negative side to the traditional ways of creating energy, and that is why I have supported renewable energy sources, in order to find a way to solve the important issue of sustainable development.

There are difficulties that Finland, Sweden, Germany and France are doing their utmost to solve, in order to be a good example. However, if we cannot get the emerging economies of the world to come on board, we will not be able to save the planet. That is why I hope that we can intensify international co-operation, which could cover the needs of industry and households so that we can achieve a more sustainable future.

I am very pleased that the Secretary-General of the United Nations has made special efforts in that regard, and I hope that my own country will obey the rules better in the future. I approve of the way in which the international co-operation system has worked so far, and I believe that, as a pragmatic people, we will make further advances in the future.

Mr Halonen, President of Finland

The two issues are not contradictory. We must treat all people who come to Europe in the same way when it comes to respecting their human rights. However, we must not think that we can solve the problem on our own. As I said earlier, we must not think that we can close the doors and windows and create our own national order – our own continental home. We are part of the planet. I know that Europe is starting to co-operate with north Africa, but it is also important to work more effectively with central Africa. We should think about what has led to the conditions in which people in those countries are living. As its name suggests, the Council of Europe is here to represent Europe, but it must broaden its focus.

We must also do something about the criminality of those who try to make money by trafficking and making false promises to desperate people. Even if we manage to do that, however, we must bear in mind that in many countries people are so poor that they will voluntarily take the risks involved in trying to come to Europe and will pay a lot of money to do so. International co-operation is the best solution. As you said in your question, this is our common responsibility; it is not just the responsibility of the border countries. Finland is one of the border countries, in the north of Europe, but although it is a border country in European Union terms, it is no longer a border country in terms of the Council of Europe. Broader neighbourhood politics are a good answer, as is global activity in, for instance, the United Nations. We have not seen a single global agreement that could deal with the problems of migration and the movement of people over borders. The United Nations has not been able to produce such an agreement, but a great deal could be achieved with the help of the Council of Europe.

Mr Halonen, President of Finland

You are right. We do not use the word “neutrality” any more. We describe ourselves as being militarily non-aligned, which means that we are not a member of NATO, along with Sweden, Austria, Ireland and, I believe, Malta. In the European Union, we are aligned in the broader security sense.

I believe that what we need in Europe is neighbourhood politics. Finland has interesting and active neighbours: Sweden to the west, Norway to the north-west, Estonia to the south and Russia to the east. Russia is, of course, no longer the Soviet Union. Because there have been many wars between us and our eastern neighbours, we must be patient if we are to build good neighbourly relations. I think that both the Russian and the Finnish delegations would agree that we now have very good neighbourhood politics. The more exchanges of ideas and trade – for instance, more and more tourists from the east have been coming to Finland – the more pragmatic problems arise, but the solutions to those problems increase as well.

Learning to know each other is key to our national foreign policy. We are very much members of the Nordic family, and this year we will be standing for the Security Council as a common candidate for the Nordic countries. We have many ideas for making global politics more active. We have our family of Nordic countries, and we have good relations with our neighbours. We have our common home in the broader Europe. However, we also feel that we are global citizens.

I could have given a much longer answer, but you would not have liked that, Mr President.

Mr Halonen, President of Finland

As I said earlier, at a time of rapid enlargement of the Council of Europe and, subsequently, the European Union, we faced the challenge of finding a way of advancing the democratic process in a more positive way. In the Council of Europe, we concluded that a new democratic State with full respect for human rights, the rule of law and social justice could not be built overnight, and that it would be best to start with a basic package. After the candidate country has passed this first threshold, it should make a serious public commitment to making reforms. This succeeded pretty well. I was once a rapporteur in connection with Slovakia and I hope that there are some members from Slovakia present. As I say, there has been success. The new member countries, as we called them in those days, used to complain and ask, “How is it possible that you are scrutinising our system in so much detail, when the old members could be seen to have made some mistakes themselves?” Sometimes we adopted a rather bad sense of humour and said, “You see, the founding members of the club always have all the privileges.” Sooner or later, however, we came to the same conclusion. Now there are no longer new members and old members; we are all equal members of the Council of Europe. We all have to acknowledge that nobody is perfect – not one person or not one country.

We must now follow up the processes, implement the agreements and find ways to face the new challenges. It should be quite natural for us to do that. Whatever country we are in, we know that the systems that were founded 20 years ago are still valid; we are making reforms all the time. Sometimes neighbours can help, and sometimes so can Strasbourg. They can help us to find our way to the goals we want faster and easier than we could do by ourselves.

Sometimes one member country says something about another member country, but I would say that they are being brotherly or sisterly critics of each other. I hope that what is said is for good purposes. If ways can be found, why not follow them? Conversely, those on the receiving end of the criticisms should not think, “Oh, they do not love us.” It is not a question of love; it is just a question of becoming better. Everyone, myself included, can talk about what new steps countries should be taking. However, I would say that we should not underestimate the help of our friends and neighbours, particularly here where the culture of Europe is a common forum and there are human rights organisations, including the new Human Rights Commission. They point the way – not to criticise but to help to find a solution.

Mr Halonen, President of Finland

Cold and small! Let us be honest when we are in our own family. If we visit African or Asian countries, we find that they have a rather old-fashioned picture of Europe. They have their own economic and cultural ties to Europe in some cases. People might know some of the big countries like the United Kingdom, France, Spain and perhaps some others; I suspect that they will not know much about Slovenia. They might have heard about Finland but they might have to think about whether we have a queen or a president. It is, of course, the same when it comes to our knowledge of African and Asian countries. We know some of the big ones, but not all of them; perhaps our picture is old fashioned.

That is why, Mr Kaikkonen, when my African friends say I should come and see the new Africa and Asia, I say they should come and see the new Europe. It might be the first contact for European countries with an African member of parliament or an Asian minister. Broader international co-operation is so important. I hope that we will secure the co-operation of those who have older and longer experience in Europe. They have often had experience of rapid development – and that will be greatly welcomed in many parts of the world.

As I have already said a few times today, we offer quality rather than quantity, but that does not mean that we should be arrogant. I have not always known exactly how much progress has been made in some countries when it comes to gender equality, environmental sustainability and so forth. There are not so many old-fashioned, arrogant gentlemen around; more and more are women. Let us break those old-fashioned pictures. We should be proud of which country we come from. Have people ever been to Finnish towns? Have they seen how far we have come towards being a modern European country in such a short time? We are ready to learn from them.

It sounds very poetic, but this is really our old planet and it should be okay for our future generations. We need very close co-operation with other parts of the world. In that way, we will help all our children to survive.

Mr Halonen, President of Finland

If nobody had achieved anything in this area it would be a very hard task. We know that there is a problem of lagging gender equality in many countries, but we can learn from each other. In Finland we have even survived having a lady president for 12 years, and in the recent past we had a government comprising a slight majority of women. However, we have not succeeded so well in business; many countries have a better position for women in business. I hope we can learn from you. Members of the Parliamentary Assembly have ties and networks. In Finland, when it comes to employees, the women tend to work very much in the sector of health, education and social welfare – and, more recently, in the environment. They often have a better education than men, and they do very well at school, university and even at higher levels.

The situation is still complicated in working life. Salaries in those sectors where women predominate are not as high as in those where men traditionally predominate – in heavy industry and so forth. We need to recognise the value of services; that is one way to proceed, although it is sometimes difficult to get this through. As the member who put the question well knows, we need decisive politics in our own countries, but we also need to follow examples from other member States. I hope that we do not need to wait for the following generations to get this work done. We in Finland have tried, and nobody else has made it any better. What we have noticed is that in business life those corporations that have both men and women on their boards get better results than those that have only men on their boards. I do not think that is only because they have women on their boards; it also shows that they have been more open-minded in finding new solutions. If anyone is interested in this topic, I think they will be able to find statistics illustrating what I have just said.