NEW YEAR'S SPEECH
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF FINLAND 1.1.1998
During the past twelve months we gathered for celebrations marking the jubilee year of our independence. It was gratifying to see young people participating in such large numbers. Our history unites the generations. This provides a foundation for a healthy national self-esteem. We need it.
We must not forget the least fortunate of our fellow human beings. Growing loneliness and exclusion are gnawing at our society. The shocking forms that domestic violence has assumed are often symptoms of exclusion and despair. The frailest children are those most likely to suffer the effects of neglect and abandonment.
On the other hand, citizens and their organisations have stepped up their activity to help those of our neighbours who have been excluded and are in distress: family carers, voluntary workers with charitable bodies and other persons who help their fellow human beings in need are bearing the brunt of the struggle on today's front. Human dignity is being defended and bolstered in the supportive organisations and networks that they have created. The initiative of voluntary helpers will assume even greater importance over the next few years.
There are long and lengthening waiting lists for admission to children's health care institutions. I hope that specifically those children in the most difficult situation will receive the full attention of all of us.
We have become more clearly aware of the importance of everyday security. A greater effort must be made to ensure that people are safe in the streets, schools and in their homes. There is no place in Finland for racism nor for people taking the law into their own hands.
A secure society is open, respectful of civil rights and democratic. It is founded on respect for law and order. The professional skill and work morality of our police force and frontier guard are recognised as being of a high level. The task of the police is to maintain public order and security. In this they require support and a willingness to cooperate on the part of the public. We were given a living reminder of this in conjunction with the shocking murders of police officers last autumn. The police are working more and more to organise services of the village constable type and, in collaboration with residents of various areas, to prevent crime and breaches of public order. Care must be taken to ensure that the police are provided with the resources they need.
There is a strong tradition of the rule of law in Finland. Citizens must be given equal treatment before the law.
Justice develops on the foundation of the nation's morality and sense of what is right and wrong. An independent judiciary is a central aspect of democracy. Also for this reason, the institutions of justice must be able to bear criticism, and they can. This is a strength that we must not lose.
The aspiration in legal thinking must be to achieve a balanced tension between, on the one hand, enterprise and individuality and, on the other, common responsibility, rights and obligations, individuality and sense of community.
The central goal of the economic policy pursued in recent years has been to create the preconditions for sustained, employment-promoting growth. Implementation of this policy has been facilitated by the support that the various interest organisations have given it. An outstanding example of this is the two-year incomes agreement signed three weeks ago. That accord will safeguard economic growth conducive to supporting employment. In comparable conditions of strong growth in the past, patience has often failed. That has not happened now.
In a comparison with earlier accords, the present one reaches the level of merit of the 1968 stabilisation agreement, which has attained landmark stature in our history. The achievement of the present agreement provides grounds for the assumption that our labour market is adjusting, in a manner that promotes job creation, to the national obligations imposed by European economic and monetary union.
Economic growth has led to a steady improvement in the employment situation. In order to reduce our unemployment, which persists at a high level, there must now be more open-minded efforts to assess and reform the structures that are obstacles either to employment or to the acceptance of jobs on offer.
Nearly ten years have passed since the end of the Cold War. It is only in the past few years that we have been able to fully grasp the significance of the change associated with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Economic globalisation gained a completely new impetus when that happened.
Finland's security situation is good. Our country's opportunities for cooperation have increased everywhere. We and Sweden are closer to each other than we have ever been in our history as an independent nation. This has yielded more and more concrete results. That cannot be diminished by minor differences of opinion on matters unrelated to the core area of our mutual relations.
Development of the Finnish Defence Forces is continuing. The aim is to look well ahead, far into the next decade. Anti-personnel mines are one of the foci of decision making in relation to our national defence capability. It is important that the decision we make on the broad outlines of our national defence are arrived at on a basis of national consensus.
The military development in northern Europe has tended towards cooperation and arms reduction. President Yeltsin's announcement of Russian force reductions in areas adjacent to Finland is good news. Our border authorities' cooperation with Russia has developed well. That the Baltic States are building up a credible foundation for their national defence promotes stability in northern Europe. Finland has offered assistance in this work.
A phase of lively diplomatic activity is in progress in the international community. Last March, Finland had the opportunity to host an important American-Russian summit meeting. The purpose of that meeting was to tie up some of the security-related loose ends that remained after the end of the Cold War. It was agreed in Helsinki that disarmament will continue, cooperation will be deepened and the right of all states to determine their own security arrangements will be respected.
An important opening in the direction of developing military security on a basis of cooperation was made in conjunction with the NATO summit in Madrid last summer with the establishment of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC). Also in the development of this forum, Finland and Sweden have been able to intensify their mutual cooperation.
I met President Lennart Meri in Tallinn two weeks ago and congratulated him on our kindred nation Estonia having been given the go-ahead, together with five other countries, to negotiate membership of the European Union.
The commencement of Estonia's accession talks is a good reflection of the positive atmosphere associated with the end of the Cold War and of the European Union's importance in this enormous change.
The relationship between Finland and Russia is now more and more one of natural interaction. The border between the two countries, which is now also the EU's border with Russia, is one that unites rather than separates.
Finland is building interaction between the EU and Russia. Finnish EU policy is respected and the positive meaning that our membership has for Russia has been noted.
Russia has developed her initiatives with respect to the Baltic States. This gives cause to expect that border agreements between Estonia and Russia and Latvia and Russia will be signed without delay.
The Finnish Government's initiative concerning development of the European Union's northern dimension has received unreserved support everywhere. This was confirmed at the Luxembourg summit.
The stock-market and currency crisis in East and South-East Asia has taken many by surprise. We shall have to concentrate more carefully on the development of the global economy. There is a significant linkage between economic development in both Finland and the rest of Europe and in the world generally.
One important effect of economic and monetary union is that in conditions of globalisation it will add competitiveness to the economies of EU member states. At the same time the euro, as the member states' new common currency, will contribute to stability in global money markets, because it will be the other leading currency alongside the dollar. A recent study conducted by the Research Institution of the Finnish Economy indicated that Finnish companies will benefit more from the euro than their counterparts in other EU members. In brief, the adoption of the euro will mean savings and the elimination of exchange-rate risks. The main beneficiaries of this will be small companies that have borrowed money abroad. A small country so dependent on foreign trade as Finland is will derive new strength for economic growth from the common currency.
Finland's first three years as a member of the European Union have passed. Much that is encouraging has been experienced, but there is still a lot to develop. It is important from Finland's perspective that our country's northern natural conditions and extensive land area are taken properly into consideration in EU decision making. Thanks to the assiduous efforts of our negotiators, we succeeded in getting the Union's then decision makers to grasp these basic matters in the talks prior to accession. It is now especially essential to make sure that the opportunities that EU structural funds offer are effectively availed of. Significant economic values are involved. We must develop a well-functioning national strategy for achieving this goal. Our own administration must show its ability.
The Government has taken important decisions concerning allocation of resources for research and product development, i.e. to increase our fund of know-how capital. Indeed, I have seen on my visits to the provinces and industrial facilities that many promising technology companies with excellent prospects of succeeding in world markets have emerged in our country. A growing number of service firms founded on top-level expertise are likewise emerging and making a bigger contribution to solving the unemployment problem.
What must now be ensured is that the so-called innovation chain does not break after such a promising start. Instead, sufficient capital and the support of experts in business management must be arranged for these young companies, thereby substantially helping to accelerate their growth, internationalisation and access to world markets. In this way we will be able to ensure that new know-how stays in Finland.
This year will see the 50th anniversary of the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We now have a good opportunity to focus our attention on human rights and their implementation.
In the conditions of ideological confrontation that obtained during the Cold War, human rights were not interpreted universally, as the Universal Declaration requires them to be. It is the task of the international community, and especially of the UN and regional organisations like the Council of Europe, to promote implementation of human rights and freedoms and to develop the rule of law everywhere. Economic growth has improved prospects for implementing these goals in many developing countries, especially in Asia, Latin America and Africa. On the other hand, the past year has seen many serious violations of human rights in places like Algeria and the Great Lakes region of Africa and preventing these violations will require the input of the international community.
I have spent a large part of my life in the service of the UN. National independence is perhaps the most central prerequisite for the implementation of human rights in every country. Development and also improvement in the human rights situation are achieved through patient cooperation. Finland's human rights policy is founded above all on adding effectiveness to the work of the UN and its agencies and of regional human rights organisations. We are also striving within the limits of our possibilities to promote the development of the rule of law everywhere. This line has received recognition.
Alvar Aalto, the Finnish architect who is most esteemed internationally, always opened up his buildings to light, enticing brightness into our midst. I hope that in this year just beginning we as a nation will be able to receive more of the light of life and hope among us.
I wish all citizens a good and successful new year and the blessing of God.