Speech by President of the Republic of Finland Tarja Halonen at the luncheon hosted by President of Romania Traian Basescu, 9 June 2008

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My husband and I would like to extend our warmest thanks to you, Mr President, for your kind invitation to visit Romania. I last visited Bucharest in April when I attended the NATO Summit as a Partnership for Peace country representative. For our part, I can say that the Summit and its arrangements were excellent.

The decision to start European Union membership negotiations with Romania was taken during Finland’s first EU Presidency in 1999, and Romania became a Member State in January 2007. Progress towards fulfilling the membership criteria required a wide range of reform policies in your country. As you yourself have often said, Mr President, the primary objective of these reforms has been to improve the well-being of the people of Romania. Fulfilling the obligations of membership, of course, continues to require determination.

Romania has been active in the promotion of stability in the Balkans and around the Black Sea. The security risks of the Black Sea region, including smuggling and several frozen conflicts, form obstacles to the welfare of citizens and the balanced development of the region. As the holder of the Chairmanship of the OSCE, Finland is doing is her best to bring about progress in resolving these frozen conflicts.

Finland has been involved in Nordic cooperation for a long time, and we hope that cooperation between countries bordering on the Baltic Sea will further strengthen. The Northern Dimension of the EU – launched on the basis of a Finnish initiative – has been mentioned as one model for the Black Sea synergy initiative. We Finns feel that different regional cooperation projects are both useful and mutually supportive, and not competing against one another.

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Finland and Romania have a long history of good bilateral relations. There are frequent exchanges between our governments and parliaments, and of course we also meet in various contexts in the European Union. I would like to especially mention a twinning project in a particularly important area — preventing corruption. We hope that Finnish experts will be of concrete benefit to Romania in implementing your reforms.

Our bilateral economic relations have developed favourably in recent years in terms of trade and investment. Finnish companies are showing an increasing interest in the rapidly growing Romanian market. We hope that Romanian companies will discover Finland’s market, too.

We also enjoy rich cultural cooperation. We are pleased that theme weeks of Finnish films and music and Finnish literature translated into Romanian have been so well received here in Romania. In Finland, we have had opportunities to enjoy the music of Enescu and Romanian visual arts. Recently, there has been cultural exchange in musical genres, which are popular especially among young people.

Both Romania and Finland have minorities that enrich our cultural heritage, such as the Roma. The Roma are the largest minority population in Europe, and their culture is of great importance to our respective societies and to Europe as a whole. I have been involved in founding the European Roma and Travellers’ Forum. I firmly believe that achieving social and minority rights for the Roma requires that their voice be heard in the decision-making process.

A Finnish MP, Mr Gunnar Jansson played an important role in relation to Romania’s membership in the Council of Europe. He was also active in human rights and minority issues – including the situation of the Roma.

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I would like to propose a toast to your very good health and to the happiness and prosperity of the Romanian people. I am convinced that our excellent bilateral relationships will continue to intensify and strengthen.