Meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs, Development and Defence Ministers
Government Information Unit
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Defence
Press release 154/2005
20 May 2005
The EU General Affairs and External Relations Council will meet on 23 and 24 May in Brussels. The main themes of the meeting will be the Union's Financial Framework, tsunami follow-up and development cooperation issues. A meeting of the EU Defence Ministers will also be organised in connection with the Council. Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paula Lehtomäki and Minister of Defence Seppo Kääriäinen will represent Finland at the meetings.
On Sunday 22 May, a ministerial conclave on the Financial Perspective will be organised in the connection with the General Affairs and External Relations Council with the aim of promoting the negotiations on the EU's new Financial Perspective for 2007-2013. Talks will be based on the negotiating box revised by the Presidency. The revised negotiating box will focus in a more comprehensive manner than its predecessor on all expenditure items and it also provides more information on the Presidency's views on its content. The revised version also contains general guidelines with regard to the reform of own resources.
The Presidency will present to the Foreign Ministers the agenda of the European Council that will take place on 16 and 17 June. The main theme will be the Union's Financial Perspective. The European Council is also to take stock of the progress made on the amendment of the Stability and Growth Pact and ensuing changes to regulation, adopt a Declaration on the guiding principles for sustainable development and the Hague Action Plan. In the context of the Lisbon Strategy, the European Council will confirm the integrated package of guidelines that fuses the broad economic guidelines and economic guidelines. The Member States will then prepare their national reform programmes on the basis of this package. The European Council will also discuss ways to fight terrorism, the EU enlargement and key external relations issues.
The Council will assess the Union's action in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami disaster. The evaluation will be based on Commission's communications on the development of a Community Civil Protection Mechanism and strengthening of the EU's disaster response capacity in third countries, and on the proposals put forward in High Representative Javier Solana's report which aims to improve the Union's capability for rapid action in case of natural or manmade crisis.
Finland supports the objectives to improve exchange of information and situation awareness analysis as outlined in Solana's report. Based on the tsunami experience, Finland is of the opinion that the flexibility and efficiency of the Community's Civil Protection Mechanism must be improved. Finland supports the assistance mechanism based on the Commission's proposal and the increasing of training and exercises. It is also important to take into consideration work already carried out by other organisations, such as the UN.
Solana's report includes a new proposal on the creation of pre-structured military modules to deal with tsunami-like disasters. Finland and a majority of the Member States are of the opinion that the proposal cannot be implemented as such. Possible further work on the issue must take into account and utilize the ongoing work related to the development of EU's military and civilian capabilities in the field of crisis management.
The EU Development Ministers will discuss the EU's joint contribution at the UN Millennium Goals Summit next autumn. The Ministers will also discuss the new quantitative objectives to be defined for the EU's development funds. An individual target will be set for each Member State depending on whether they belong to the group of old Members States or countries that acceded to the Union in 2004. In addition, a joint average level of development aid will be set for all 25 Member States. Finland is ready to accept the Commission's proposal of reaching a joint EU level of 0.56 percent of gross national income by 2010. Finland also accepts the minimum level of 0.51 percent in 2010 and 0.7 percent by 2015 for old EU Member States.
The meeting of the EU Defence Ministers will discuss the European Security and Defence Policy. The ministers will discuss the EU's work in the field of military capabilities, situation as regards the EU battle groups, decision-making in the sphere of rapid response operations and ongoing crisis management operations. In the context of the Union's capabilities, the Council is to adopt a preliminary Requirements Catalogue relating to the development of military crisis management capabilities in order to implement the new Headline Goal 2010 adopted by the European Council. A certain number of the aforementioned issues will also be discussed at the meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers.
Further information: Jari Luoto, State Under-Secretary for EU Affairs, Government Secretariat for EU Affairs, tel. +358 9 1602 2182 and Anne Huhtamäki, Counsellor, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 6097 and Anne Ahonen, Counsellor, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 6282