"How can we maintain and even enhance equality in the new Europe?", Halonen asks.

Tarja Halonen feels that solidarity, with all that this entails, is one of the most important challenges of the modern world. With the rapid globalisation of economics, the responses to this problem must also be expressed at the same level. Thus every nation state must be as strong as possible as a fundamental unit and intergovernmental relations must be based on solidarity. A new objective is that of finding a response of solidarity in civil society.

"There is a great deal of exaggeration and romantic speculation going on about the prospects which new technology is opening up. Even though there have been some individual success stories, capital is still better equipped than individuals to succeed in this struggle. This is why globalisation is such a major challenge for us." Halonen says.

The Amsterdam Treaty is Laying the Foundations for a more Socially Responsive Europe

The European trade union movement has expressed worries about the situation of ordinary people, of wage-earners, who are caught in the mill of economic integration. Is there a danger that the monetary union to be launched next year will overshadow the demand for a more socially responsive Europe?

"We have our own challenges at European level. Since the end of the cold war our continent has experienced quite rapid change. Despite its negative aspects, this change has largely been for the better. Countries which have been through a rather rapid social and economic revolution may have failed to attend to certain matters which we in the Nordic countries consider to be highly important and of self-evident value. For us in Finland these things include social justice and keeping the market economy firmly within the overall control of a society acting in solidarity."

"I hope that by the time Finland assumes the Presidency of the European Union, Agenda 2000 will have been approved as planned and that negotiations proper with the countries seeking membership of the EU will already be underway. Otherwise things will grow too large to be manageable as a whole", Halonen observes.

Some good progress has been achieved at EU level as the Union's instruments have improved. If we compare the Maastricht and Amsterdam treaties, then we can see that the Maastricht Treaty was made with the main focus largely on macroeconomics and growth. Generally speaking the Amsterdam Treaty is one which is more concerned with laying the foundations for a citizens' and a social Europe. In such a Europe the role of employment, for example, is of great importance.

"If we, as Europeans, can now manage the follow-up to the Amsterdam Treaty, then it will provide an equilibrium for harmonising these various aspects."

Developments in the Member States are Reflected at Union Level

"I think we can also clearly discern the spread of the idea of social justice within the European Union. This may be because the same demand for justice has been gaining ground in the individual Member States. What happens in the Member States is also reflected in the co-operation going on in Europe", Halonen notes.

One good thing about the new policy on employment is that employment has become as important as macroeconomic issues such as EMU convergence criteria. A further point is that of the instruments we can use to manage these matters. Although the Union imposes general policies, primary responsibility for managing matters is vested in its nation states. These countries will probably be very different even in the future and so they must have room to manoeuvre. If a policy stressing employment and social justice becomes established in the nation states, then we may expect this to be reflected at European Union level.

Now and again we get signals from Europe that the Nordic countries and Finland could help to promote certain issues. What does Foreign Minister Halonen think these issues might primarily be?

"Besides dealing with questions of employment, it is also important that the United Kingdom has now signed up to the social dimension and that the so-called Thatcher era has come to an end. The British have also been very keen to co-operate to put this period of deep freeze firmly behind them. This is an area in which the Nordic countries and Finland have considerable experience. We could serve as an example in creating services, in arranging various subsidies, in income redistribution and in sound accounting."

Social Justice is Worth Preparing for

"The situation in Europe is bifurcated. In various opinion polls the people are even strongly insisting on an increase in welfare and affluence. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the cold war era came to an end, with right wing governments in the West, then conditions became unsettled and Europe went through a brief period of reaction away from constructing welfare states. I think most people can see now that communism is a different thing from a welfare state."

"Public debates on the issue of extending the European Union to the East still revolve around these same issues, however, in that they ask whether it is wise to extend the Union into countries in which affairs are not generally in order. When we understand the problems which the candidate countries have had to face, then we also begin increasingly to discuss the idea that the integrating EU community is developing precisely in the sphere of social justice. It would be best to view this constructively from the very beginning."