Foreign Minister Tuomioja: Criteria for EU Enlargement must be adhered to

The membership criteria set to the applicant countries of the EU must be adhered to, said Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja when addressing media representatives on November 22. Although the EU Commission, in its recent report on enlargement, estimated that 10 countries could join the EU by 2004, the most difficult questions, such as agriculture and the cohesion funds, have not been under negotiation so far.The membership criteria that were set together cannot be written off on political grounds.

Tuomioja returned on Wednesday from his tour of Macedonia,Albania and Italy. He said that two positive news have recently come from the Balkans: the elections in Kosovo and the implementation of the constitutional changes based on the agreement on Macedonia. The Albanian government has also won appreciation among EU countries for its constructive approach. According to Tuomioja, one of the problems in the whole region is that there are far too many weapons, both legal and illegal. He had been told that one million Kalashnikov rifles were stolen from the Albanian army during the crisis in 1997. Finland is supporting the UNDP program of gathering and destroying small arms in Albania.

Referring to the situation in Aghanistan, Tuomioja welcomed the participation of all those parties in the forthcoming Conference on Afghanistan, who should be involved in forming a broadbased government for the country. The European Union has decided to appoint a special envoy for Afghanistan with the task of supporting the efforts by the United Nations in bringing stability to the country and starting the reconstruction. According to Tuomioja, it seems now that the worst scenarios of a humanitarian catastrophy will not come true. The aid organisations have been able to transport enough food to the borders of Afghanistan and now the biggest problem is to ensure its distribution inside the country.