Eastern Finnish Experiences of the European Union

SPEECH/08/508 Olli Rehn EU Commissioner for Enlargement Eastern Finnish Experiences of the European Union 10th Anniversary of Eastern Finland EU-Office Brussels, 8 October 2008 Dear Friends, It is a great and exceptional pleasure to be here with you tonight, to see so many old and new friends from Eastern Finland and other parts of Europe. Speaking to an audience with so many kinsfolk from the Savo region present here makes this occasion even more exceptional. Today's title "Experiences of the European Union" is very appropriate to mark the occasion of the first decade of Eastern Finland's EU office in Brussels. During the past ten years we Europeans have experienced, among other things, the creation of the single currency and the historic enlargement from 15 to 27 member states. No mean achievements – we’ve had a true privilege to witness history in the making. Through five enlargements, the number of regions in the EU has likewise increased. Many may ask how regions really can influence decisions in the enlarged EU. Let me assure you: regions – both sub-national and cross-national – have made a serious comeback to the EU agenda. I return to this matter shortly. First, let me recall some past European experiences of an Eastern Finnish aboriginal, as I was asked to do. My first recollection of Brussels dates back to the year 1985. The then European Community was struggling with severe eurosclerosis. Any great vision for Europe was missing. But that year, a certain Monsieur Jacques Delors started as the President of the European Commission. By coincidence, that very same year I also happened to make my first visit to Brussels. – And as we have seen, with the single market, single currency, regional policy and EU enlargement, the rest is history. Let me add that the people from the Savo region have been blessed with many features of character. Modesty has never been one of them – probably since we have very few reasons to be modest, objectively. More seriously, the Delors era left its mark to the EU's shape of things – and not least to Finland’s place in Europe. In 1989, the Delors Commission made an offer to Finland and the other EFTA countries to adopt a “third way” between full membership and staying outside, which subsequently led to the creation of the European Economic Area. Being a country of thousand lakes and rally-drivers – especially in Eastern Finland – it is no wonder that Finland soon started a four-wheel-slide on the third way and made a qualitative leap to EU membership, applying for it in 1992 and joining the Union in 1995. My second recollection is from a time right prior to that, in 1991, when, as a just elected MP, I came to town and was received by a fellow Eastern Finn, Rt.Hon. Ambassador Erkki Liikanen. Erkki was already an old hand of European politics, perhaps thanks to his ancestor Herman Liikanen from Ristiina who had attacked in Garibaldi’s troops to unify Italy and today has his statue near Villa Lante in Rome. It was no catenaccio even then, and no wonder, as we only practise offensive total football in Mikkeli and Eastern Finland. Anyway, the Ambassador introduced me to some Commission officials with whom we discussed the prospective adjustment of Finnish foreign policy and agriculture to possible EU membership. On that basis, I wrote a memo to Prime Minister Esko Aho outlining certain preconditions – or reunaehdot – which the EU should meet for Finland to join. 2 Without quite realising it then, that was a very useful experience for a future Enlargement Commissioner – perhaps only with the slight and minor difference that nowadays my job is to ask the candidate countries to meet the conditions to join the EU, not the other way around! And it is in fact precisely the conditionality that makes enlargement policy the EU's most important tool of so-called soft power. The power of attraction exerted by the EU – its soft power – has acted as an incentive for stability and democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. After five rounds of EU enlargements, the soft power is still hard currency – now in the Western Balkans and Turkey. All EU countries benefit from having neighbours that are stable democracies and sound market economies. My third recollection dates to the late 1990s, when I worked for Erkki as his Head of Cabinet. During the negotiations on Agenda 2000, there was a risk that Eastern Finland would not qualify for the highest Objective One support in regional policy, if too fresh statistics were used. They could have shown that Eastern Finland was above the critical 75% level of GDP average, which would have disqualified the region from this goal. Without revealing all details, Erkki used his leverage as the Budget Commissioner: as a result, by sticking to the “correct” years, the statistics proved that Eastern Finland had 74.8 % of the EU’s GDP average, thus qualifying this region to the highest level of structural support. This leads me to say some words of the regions today and tomorrow. I have a very practical dream that the EU will shortly be able to find the right balance between unity and diversity, deepening and widening. We have already gone beyond the point where a tightly integrated Union was still a real possibility. Instead, we need a vision to deepen political integration to defend Europeans in the face of financial crises and other global challenges, while at the same time manage diversity by reinforcing regionalisation. In the past one-two decades, the regions have come to centre-stage in the EU. Economic growth in the internal market is balanced by the structural funds, to keep everybody on board. This has strengthened the regions of Finland too during her EU membership. A key element of this success story is the focus on regional development and social inclusion at national level. Finnish roads and bridges are not adorned with EU flags advertising Brussels funding. Instead, EU structural funds are used for real development aims – for advancing education, entrepreneurship, environmental technology, innovation and technology development. During Finnish EU membership, a large share of structural funds has been directed to Eastern Finland, which has its structural challenges, but also major potential. It is a region worth investing. The results speak for themselves, as shown by such widely recognised examples of research and development as the Kuopio University laboratory for environmental analytics, which is based in Mikkeli, and the fibre laboratory of Lappeenranta University of Technology, which is based in Savonlinna. 3 Dear Friends, As I said, regions are making a strong comeback to the EU's agenda. Enlargement of the EU has underlined the importance of cooperation between member states that are geographically close to one another. The background of the "new regionalisation" can be found in common historical experiences – even common identities. Relationship with Russia is, of course, of permanent interest to Eastern Finns, whose lives are closely affected by it. Following the war in Georgia, the relations between the EU and Russia are being reviewed. Their reconstruction will now depend mostly on Russia's willingness to respect European norms of inter-state relations where might is not the only right. The developments with St Petersburg and the Leningrad oblast will have a direct impact on the regional development of Eastern Finland. From this point of view, Russia should be seen as an opportunity for the benefit of the region – be it through the EU's Baltic Sea strategy, the Northern Dimension or the EU Cross Border Cooperation. I am glad that Eastern Finland is actively capitalising on these opportunities. Dear Friends, Let me conclude by saying that you are doing a remarkable job in promoting the interests of Eastern Finland in the heart of Europe. And more remarkably, you do not only ask what the EU can do for Eastern Finland, but also what Eastern Finland can do for the EU. Somewhat surprisingly, some historians still attribute this proverb to a certain US President named John F. Kennedy. But, as a matter of fact, this is of course originally a Savonian formulation by author Juhani Aho who coined it in 1899 in his short stories as follows: ∗ "Etkä kysy enää, mitä maaltasi saat, kysyt sitä, mitä voit hänelle antaa." “And you ask no more what you get from your country, but what you can give for her”. With these words – and wishes for a two-way street for a win-win interaction between Eastern Finland and the European Union – let me extend my warmest congratulations to the Eastern Finland EU Office, and wish you all the best for the future, in the region I know best. ∗ Juhani Aho: Katajainen Kansani, "Uusi Juhannus", lastu kirjoitettu 23.6.1899. 4 .

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