FINLAND: The EU should remain open to accepting new members and not set any new criteria to deter applicant states, Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen said yesterday.
In an address to the European Parliament laying out the priorities of Finland's six-month presidency of the EU, Mr Vanhanen also stressed the importance of supporting the European aspirations of states from the western Balkans.
"My starting premise here is that the EU must continue to be an open union. European countries that fulfil the membership criteria must have the possibility to join," said Mr Vanhanen, who noted that this would be a decisive year for the future of the western Balkans as the status of Kosovo is due to be decided in the autumn.
"Not only is enlargement a key tool for strengthening stability and democracy, but it is also one of the strategic responses to the challenges of globalisation," he added.
Mr Vanhanen's comments about enlargement signal a break from the previous EU president, Austria, which wanted to put a limit on the future borders of the EU.
Enlargement is set to dominate Finland's presidency with decisions on Romania's and Bulgaria's EU-entry date and Turkey's accession talks looming large on the agenda.
However, Mr Vanhanen said Finland would prioritise concrete projects that would promote economic growth, improve EU decision-making in the field of justice and improve EU relations with its own neighbour Russia.
He rejected the idea that his country was condemned by circumstances to a "caretaker presidency" handling day-to-day business until the French and Dutch elected new leaders.
"There may be something of a wait-and-see mood in the Union, but the world around us is not going to stop and wait," he said.
"We would be doing future generations of Europeans a great disservice if we were simply to shut our eyes to the historic challenges that we face and wait for better times to come."