NEW YEAR'S SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF FINLAND 1.1.1999

International comparisons project a positive picture of the state of our country. Especially in surveys measuring quality of life, we rank among the highest in the world league. The figures indicating the state of our economy are exceptionally positive. In the light of those numbers, we have recovered astonishingly well from the economic plight in which we found ourselves in the beginning of the decade.

These positive observations do not, however, tell the whole truth.

In the foreword to the report of the "Hunger Group" committee that he chaired, Bishop Eero Huovinen of Helsinki notes the following:

"More and more Finns have been falling, for a variety of reasons, through society’s safety nets. People have great difficulty in obtaining a livelihood and are grappling with other problems that make it harder for them to cope with everyday life. -- Increased poverty has manifested itself even in the form of outright hunger. -- Despite the country’s economic growth, the need for help has further increased."

We are paying an intangible bill for the recession, but we must also do some soul-searching about our values. A time of transition is a tough challenge for everyone. There are no simple answers, but solutions must be sought.

There is a special need now to be concerned about young people. What do these terrible acts of violence tell us? Why are the amounts of intoxicants and drugs being used constantly increasing?

I have had discussions in several conjunctions with teachers and other educators. In their everyday work they see on a practical level all of the problems that children and young adults have to suffer.

It is too easy to emphasise the responsibility of the authorities and educators outside the family. It often feels difficult to say that the greatest responsibility lies with children’s parents and no one can transfer it away from them. If parents do not support their children’s development, encourage them and also set limits for them, the work that other educators do will mainly consist of dealing with symptoms. Children need the support of their parents and of their educators for a long time. Bringing up children requires a genuine presence; it is not distance work.

In bringing up young people fairness and responsibility must be brought onto the practical level. Trial programmes in Finland and abroad have shown that the instance of malicious damage has been reduced when offenders have to expiate their wrongdoing. Broken windows are repaired and graffiti painted over. In this way people see, through their own deeds, the difference between right and wrong.

In Finland as elsewhere, the world of values has turned in a clearly more selfish and harder direction. Freedom changes into unscrupulousness when people lack the humility and commitment to serve their own community. A good society is born of the love for one’s neighbour that one feels in everyday life. As Eino Leino wrote in one of his poems:

"Kindness does not come shouting;
it moves softly whispering."

Many painful decisions have had to be made in economic policy during this decade. Our economy is now in better shape than in the cases of many other countries that have put off their difficult decisions.

However, the purpose of economic policy is to safeguard the wellbeing of citizens, not just the achievement of certain numerical values in international comparisons. It is the results achieved in the battle against unemployment that reveal whether economic policy has been successful.

The development has been largely positive. New jobs have been created and our unemployment rate is now the same as the European Union average. Yet we cannot be satisfied with the overall situation. There are groups for whom things are still not going well. They include the elderly long-term jobless and unemployed single parents.

Many a 50-year-old who is still well-capable of work is threatened with exclusion from the labour market. Companies are reluctant to engage employees of a more mature age. It often feels that this segment of the population is regarded as some kind of ballast. That they are not. They are a resource. We need everyone’s work input.

In this decade, unemployment has hit single parents a lot harder than the rest of the population. Many of them become the target of discrimination in the labour market because they cannot be as flexible as others about working time and because they must stay home from work more often due to their children falling ill.

These problems call for special measures.

There were setbacks in the international community during the year just ended. Dark clouds gathered over the world economy. The broadly-based cooperation that has been built up over a decade is being put to the test. Our goal must be to strengthen the role of the United Nations in resolving crises. A coherent security order, one that neither divides nor differentiates, must be created in Europe. In our continent, stability essentially shadows the development of the European Union.

Finland’s international position is now stronger than ever in our history. Membership of the European Union is a central factor in this.

The solutions that we have made in the sector of security policy have proved correct and won the broad support of citizens.

The economic and political situation in our neighbouring country Russia has become more difficult in the past year. Persons who have been active in defence of democracy and minorities have become targets of violence. These things prompt many questions. Data on the country’s fundamental economic and social structures are not encouraging. The majority of the country’s inhabitants are struggling for their daily livelihood.

Russia faces a long and painful period of reforms. It is no longer enough merely to treat symptoms; attention must be focused on the real causes of problems.

Finland and other countries can only support the launch of this effort, but it is the Russians themselves who will have to do the actual work. For our neighbouring country to be able to institute reforms and maintain enough internal cohesion, cross-border contacts on the level of the citizen are very important. Companies, non-governmental organisations, authorities and educational institutions ought to begin considering how they could offer a greater number of young people from our neighbouring country the opportunity to gain practical experience of how democracy works. Here, there is a task for the European Union as a whole.

Today, Finland enters the euro area together with ten other member states of the European Union. The economic stability that this creates has already benefited our country. Our experiences in the early years of this decade showed us what an unstable currency meant for mortgage-holders and small businesses.

Another challenge facing the European Union is enlargement. History has taught Finland the bitter lesson of what drawing lines of division in Europe means. It is important that no new borderlines, either economic or political, are drawn in our continent. The emergence of new markets in our immediate geographical vicinity will strengthen also our economy. This, too, is an argument in favour of enlarging the European Union.

Finland will hold the Presidency of the European Union for the latter half of this year. We can anticipate a stint of work that will be demanding in many ways.

The significant cooperation projects that we have proposed and will take place under the auspices of the EU will now have an important task to fulfil.

In a democratic society, power resides with citizens, who express their will through the ballot box. A high turn-out at election time is a characteristic feature of a well-functioning democracy. I hope that every Finnish citizen of voting age will exercise this fundamental right in the forthcoming elections.

I wish all citizens a good New Year and the blessing of God.