Minister Sasi : Satisfactory Results from Gothenburg Summit

The political offering of the European Council meeting in Gothenburg on June 15-16 has been overshadowed by the media headlines caused by street houliganism. From Finland´s point of view the meeting itself and its conclusions can be considered succesful for several reasons, said Minister for Foreign Trade Kimmo Sasi on June 18. Minister Sasi was speaking in Urjala.

As to the enlargement of the EU, the target date set for the closing of the first accession negotiations was defined. The aim is to finalize the negotiations for the part of the first new members by the end of 2002. Finland fully agrees to this, because we have constantly emphasized proceeding along the road map adopted in Nice.
In the negotiating process, it is important to evaluate each country on the basis of its own progress.
Thus it will be possible to estimate in the autumn of 2002, which countries will be among the first to enter the Union.

The meeting also adopted broad guidelines for the economic policy in the EU, including this time the promotion of sustainable development. Likewise, the Gothenburg Summit hastened structural reforms improving competitiveness of the European goods-,service- and capital markets.

The European Council could not yet make a decision on the location of the European Food Authority in Helsinki. However, the meeting included instructions on further preparations for the placement of EU agencies in its conclusions, in line with the principles adopted in the Edinburgh Summit in 1992.This means, that the agencies will be primarily placed in those EU member countries, which have no EU agencies so far. For this reason, the chance of Finland and Helsinki for receiving the European Food Authority has remarkably grown.