(Translation)

SPEECH BY PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC MARTTI AHTISAARI
AT A SEMINAR MARKING
THE 60^TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LAPLAND PROVINCIAL STATE OFFICE IN ROVANIEMI
ON 5.10.1998

The Nordic Dimension - Tomorrow’s Challenge or Today’s Opportunity?

For six decades, the Lapland Provincial State Office has borne responsibility for meeting the needs of this province and of its inhabitants in challenging circumstances that have included harsh natural conditions, a large geographical area, the destruction of war and the flight from the land in the 1970s. The richly-varied nature of Lapland and the spaciousness of life here are likewise a unique wealth. Lapland is known in the world as a strongly distinctive and fascinating region.

Lapland became a province in its own right only in 1938. When a restructuring of the provincial system was being debated recently, it was considered natural that the Province of Lapland would be retained, and indeed it was. Development efforts in the regions are organised under the umbrella of Regional Councils comprising representatives of the municipalities in each region. Lapland has its own Employment and Economic Development Centre. Decision making has been decentralised to the regions and the position of Sami cultural autonomy and of the Sami language has been strengthened. The state authorities have put their trust in local expertise where decision making is concerned. Thus the future is now in the hands of Lapland’s own people to a greater degree that it has been in the past

The reform of regional administration made the Provincial State Office a stronger, more capable, modern regional authority. Its special strength is the diversity of its expertise, because it has been entrusted with the regional tasks of seven sectors of administration. Provincial State Offices, court districts and municipalities form an efficient public services network, within which the new task of the Provincial State Offices is envisaged as being to assess the availability and quality in their respective territories of the basic services that come within their remit. In accordance with the Government’s decision-in-principle on administrative policy, devolution of responsibilities to the regions is continuing. In my perception, the restructured Provincial State Offices will be capable of accepting the new tasks transferred to them from the central administration.

How sustainable the new system of provincial administration is and what the future of the Provincial State Offices will be are still the subjects of a public discourse. And indeed they should be. My view is, however, that the Provincial State Offices are now part of the regional administrative structure of the country and that they are performing tasks that will continue to require the State to maintain a regional organisation.

It has given me pleasure to note on my trips to Lapland that the people of this province are vigorously responding to the challenges that membership of the European Union and internationalisation are bringing. When drafting development plans for its own territory Lapland has very effectively made use of its location at the core of an Arctic region spanning four sovereign states. Although unemployment remains at far too high a level, you have done a lot of work to create new jobs. And in this work you have also achieved good results. Without independent work and initiative there can be no success.

The limiting effect of distance is diminishing. Modern technology makes it possible to maintain real-time contact with anywhere in the world. Geographical location is no longer a primary consideration from the perspective of a manufacturer of advanced technology products. By contrast, the availability of a competent labour force and the possibility of training one can be a quite decisive success factor.

Education and competence are, in fact, important - if not among the most important - success factors that Lapland possesses. The establishment of the University of Lapland was a milestone in the development of the province. A seat of higher learning radiates know-how into every part of its environment. A university strengthens the role of its location as a regional growth centre. Now, under new legislation, universities and other third-level institutions hold the keys to their own and their regions’ success more firmly in their hands than they have done in the past. Also the University of Lapland must avail itself of those keys. The key to northern Finland’s success lies in using its own strengths rather than relying on external help

The province of Lapland and its inhabitants have undergone many trials and tribulations in the course of the past six decades, but especially during the fighting here in 1944-45. The war swept totally across Lapland. This experience is a concrete demonstration of the importance of peace, stable conditions and good cooperation. Through the combined strength of four neighbouring states, the entire region can be efficiently developed. Good examples of the potential of cross-border regional cooperation are being created here.

The people of Lapland attach great value to the security, stability and peaceful development that has been characteristic of our international position for over fifty years now. Both threats and opportunities are always inherent in development. We must deal with the threats and avail ourselves carefully of the opportunities. The Northern Dimension - an initiative presented by Finland in the EU - converts this endeavour into a functioning totality of actions.

The initiative elevates northern regions to a position of prominence in decision making within the European Union. The EU now examines the entire northern region as a coherent entity. Last December, the European Council asked the Commission to draft a report on the Northern Dimension in time for it to be presented to the Council at its meeting in December this year. We hope the Council will decide to request preparation of a concrete action plan.

Merely drawing attention to them is not in itself sufficient to make a policy in northern regions. The ultimate goal that the Northern Dimension is intended to achieve is the development of cooperation in relation to European stability and security, the fundamental values that Europeans share - such as human rights, democracy, the rule of law and a market economy - as well as in efforts to promote prosperity, employment, trade and economic development. Naturally, all this must be achieved in an economically, ecologically and socially sustainable manner. This goal also includes narrowing standard-of-living gaps, solving the problems of regions adjacent to Finland and preventing those problems from worsening to the point where they give rise to crises.

In Murmansk in October 1987 General-Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Communist Party proposed the commencement of environmental cooperation in Arctic regions. The proposal was a significant opening for new cooperation. Until then, the Arctic regions had been mainly theatres of the Cold War.

It was on a Finnish initiative that the Arctic environmental cooperation known as the Rovaniemi Process began. It was the first form of inter-governmental Arctic cooperation and involved eight states: the Nordic countries, Russia, Canada and the USA. Today, this cooperation together with sustainable development forms the remit of the Arctic Council, which was founded in Ottawa in 1996. Our knowledge of the state of the Arctic environment is nowadays in a completely different category compared with what we knew ten years ago.

The form of Arctic cooperation with which the Finns are most familiar - the Barents Euro-Arctic Council - came into being with the Kirkenes Declaration in January 1993. The history of interaction between the peoples of the northern region was centuries-old even then. Cooperation in the Barents Sea area sprang from these long roots when the Russians became partners in the traditional North Calotte cooperation. The EU Commission was a participant in Barents Euro-Arctic cooperation from the very beginning. With the accession of Finland and Sweden, the coverage of the EU’s own programmes was likewise extended into the Barents Sea region.

In the short period of only five years since it began and despite the difficulties encountered in the initial period, Barents cooperation has already demonstrated its vitality.

The Northern Dimension of the EU was strengthened when Finland and Sweden joined. Now, the territory of the Union extends across the Baltic and to within the Arctic Circle. The Union has a common border, over 1,300 kilometres long, with Russia and has become an important actor in northern regions. The ongoing enlargement process further underscores the importance of the Northern Dimension in the Union’s external relations.

Russia’s centre of gravity has shifted towards the European heartland. The Russian Federation is more dependent on foreign trade and geographically a more northern state than the Soviet Union was. The EU’s share of Russia’s foreign trade is already over 40 per cent. In addition to that, the Union is the biggest provider of economic aid to Russia. The Baltic Sea has become Russia’s main artery of trade. Economic interdependence has increased in northern Europe. EU enlargement will increase interaction between the Union and Russia.

Northern Europe is endowed with considerable natural riches. Globally significant reserves of oil and gas lie under the Barents and Kara seas. The EU depends on outside sources of energy. Thus an opportunity to gain mutual benefits exists. This emphasises the importance of north-west Russia over the long term. The EU is already the biggest buyer of Russian energy and raw materials.

The northern regions contain abundant mineral deposits and possibilities of exploiting them are being examined. The Kola Peninsula is exceptionally rich in minerals. It also has processing plants that use very old technology and badly pollute the environment. Modernising them would be in the interests of everyone involved. One project that has been in the pipeline for a long time is the nickel mine in Petsamo.

The forest reserves in the European part of Russia are 6 - 7 billion cubic metres, a third of the European total. Management of northern forests in accordance with principles of sustainability is essential, and would also create new opportunities for exploiting them.

Within the Nordic Dimension framework, with the EU examining the entire North as a single entity, the Union’s relationship with Russia will be central.

The Nordic Dimension is not a regional initiative. It places no limit on the number of states that can participate in it. The initiative highlights the advantages of developing the northern regions of Europe and the importance of cooperation for all of the Union’s work.

The initiative is not based on new structures. Existing forms of cooperation can be used as appropriate instruments. The Union was a well-functioning Baltic Sea programme, which should be developed in such a way that it takes adequate account of the long-term interests of an enlarging Union in the Baltic Sea region. It lies in the interests of the Union to add effectiveness to its Barents Sea cooperation and other activities in Arctic regions. Bilateral cooperation programmes and pan-Nordic cooperation between adjacent regions on both sides of borders are important concrete inputs within the framework of the Northern Dimension.

Hundreds of projects have been financed within the framework of cooperation between adjacent areas of Finland and Russia. Funding for projects in Russia has also been provided under European Union programmes.

The initiative will increase the efficiency with which existing resources are used and enable them to be focused with greater precision. The potential that the Northern Dimension offers can be allowed for in revising the Tacis Decree. Developing the EU’s funding instruments and cooperation between international and Nordic financial institutions has a central position in this context.

The Russian economy is in great difficulties at the moment. Nevertheless the need and opportunity to develop cooperation remains. Finding a common way of thinking and operational policy for Europe and Russia will increase Russia’s prospects of reforming her economy. The interdependence of the economies in the Baltic Sea region is obvious to us.

The Northern Dimension idea can not live unless it is felt in the everyday life of the ordinary person. A central goal is to guarantee the safety of citizens. This has to do with countering crime and environmental threats, but above all it means security in the social sense. It must extend not only to cooperation between the business world and the administrative sector, but also to the level of civic organisations and the individual. Agreements between states do not have the desired effect unless they are based on the aspirations and wishes of citizens.

The North Calotte is a natural entity which international frontiers divide. For that reason one of the great resources on which cooperation in the North is based, social interaction, has always taken place across the borderlines between states. The strongest foundation underlying contacts and cooperation across the borders between the various parts of the North Calotte has always been a commonality of interests.

A policy for the North should be founded on northern solutions. It must spring from the North’s own circumstances and strengths. It can be implementation of the finest values and goals of democracy. Interaction between EU citizens and Russians is useful also for other reasons than those relating to economic prosperity. Cooperation increases the stability and security of the region; it creates a better future.

The Northern Dimension is a goal for tomorrow, one that will be realised when we grasp today’s opportunities. I extend my warmest greetings and wishes for success to the Lapland Provincial State Office and all of the people of Lapland.