SPEECH BY MR MARTIN AHTISAARI,

THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC

AT THE OPENING OF THE 1996 SESSION OF PARLIAMENT

ON 7 FEBRUARY, 1996

Finnish society is continuing to undergo great change. At the same time, the international community is attempting to disengage from historical confrontation and create the preconditions for lasting peace.

In such conditions of change, it is essential that our country's political system stands on an enduring foundation. Citizens must be able to feel that the political system works in accordance with the values and wishes that they represent.

A broadly-based majority Government was formed without delay in our country in the spring of last year. It is important from the perspective of democratic credibility that governments sit for their full term.

The Government has open-mindedly grasped the challenges brought by change and the principal goal that it has set for itself is to bring about a decisive improvement in employment. The achievement of a two-year incomes agreement was an important step in this respect. Efforts are also being made to steer structural change in a way that prevents regional disparities from coming into being in our society. I believe that such a policy will find widespread support.

Unemployment remains the cause of concern that is uppermost in the minds of all of us. An atmosphere of shared responsibility, not pessimism, is the nourishment that we now require for the spirit. What needs to be demonstrated at this time is front-line tenacity.

Planning the future is today an extremely demanding challenge. As Editor-in-Chief Jarno Forssell of the university newspaper Ylioppilaslehti points out: "In the future, everything will be feasible and it will not be possible to rule out any alternative in advance. We must prepare for change - if not in other respects, at least by retaining the flexibility to alter plans as the situation requires."

Although Forssell's assessment was focused mainly on the future of his university, it can also be seen as a starting point for assessing the development of society as a whole.

Economic growth rates vary considerably from one part of the world to the other. Forecasting economic development is becoming increasingly difficult. We have experienced this in relation to Europe and the United States in recent months. Economic forecasts have had to be adjusted without any cause-and-effect linkages being particularly discernible.

European integration is continuing above all through the European Union's enlargement process. In the earliest months of membership, Finland was able to make her own significant contribution to the Union's decision to embrace northern questions and enlargement as central goals.

The adoption in the form proposed by Finland of the so-called TACIS programme, which provides for cooperation between the European Union, the CIS countries and Mongolia, is an important achievement from our point of view. We worked hard for it, especially at the European Council meeting in Madrid.

The Baltic has become the European Union's inland sea. The Union must determinedly create the preconditions for lasting stability in the region. That requires an additional economic input and better coordination of various measures.

Finland and the other Nordic countries support the aspirations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to closer participation in the constant process towards European integration. That process must be seen as an essential part of the security structure of the whole of Europe, a structure which will enhance opportunities for cooperation in northern Europe, the Baltic and the Barents Sea.

The European Union is preparing for the intergovernmental conference beginning in Turin in late March. The Government will soon be reporting to Parliament on this. In the 1990s, the European Union will have to ensure its ability to function so that enlargement can be carried through. On the other hand, the Union must constitute a genuine community of citizens. Only in that way will it be able to develop into an increasingly closer alliance of the peoples of Europe, as the Union's charter documents define the goal.

The European Union is the central factor of stability in our continent. It should further develop its international role. We are prepared to develop the Union's decision-making and structures on a basis of clearly-defined goals and equality.

The development of Finland's goals within the European Union has begun well. This has been helped by the active and positive contribution of Parliament.

The end of the war in former Yugoslavia opens a new phase in building a European security system. Finland is participating by making both a military and a civilian contribution to implementation of the Bosnian peace settlement. It is a big challenge for the entire international community. At the same time, however, it is positive example of a partnership for peace being implemented in practice.

After an open and responsible discussion, the Government and Parliament quickly reached the decisions that made it possible to send a Finnish unit to Bosnia to participate in the NATO-led operation to keep and enforce the peace there.

A major challenge for the international community is to ensure that civilian measures to aid Bosnia are adequate and properly timed.

Our action continues the Finnish tradition of peacekeeping and demonstrates our ability to adapt to new demands. The Finnish force needs and is receiving every support from the home country in its demanding task. Peace in the Balkans is a cause that the whole of Europe, also Finland, shares.

Russia's social and economic difficulties and violence in the Caucasus underline the need to strengthen contacts between Russia and the rest of Europe. Russia's admission to membership of the Council of Europe shows that there is a desire to support the strengthening of democracy in Russia as an essential part of a stable Europe.

Cooperation with adjacent areas must be quickly made more effective so that all sources of finance can be availed of to the full.

The roots of our Constitution, which has demonstrated its enduring nature, are centuries old and the central premises on which our present fundamental laws are based largely date from the pre-independence era. Numerous part-reforms have been implemented in attempts to respond to the demands of new circumstances and to strive to strengthen a democratic system of government.

The goal that has now been set in the constitutional-reform drafting work in progress for more over twenty years is that of enacting a coherent and clear Constitution. The intention is to repair and service our Constitution without altering its foundations.

The Finnish tradition of the exercise of sovereign power includes the concept of affinity between government and people as well as the requirement of a balance in the relationship between the highest organs of state and that the exercise of power be subject to supervision and the requirement of accountability.

If there is sufficient unanimity on the goals to be striven for in constitutional reform, prospects are good for the achievement of a final result that will be able to command the support also of strong public opinion.

Distinguished Deputies,

I wish Parliament success in its work and hereby declare the 1996 session open.