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Welcome message from Ambassador Kirsti Lintonen, Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations

Summary: Welcome message from Ambassador Kirsti Lintonen, Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations (New York, 1 July 2006)

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the website of the Finnish Presidency of the European Union!

Finland's six-month EU Presidency commences on July 1st, 2006. The framework for this Presidency has already been prescribed by the work program for 2006, and shaped in cooperation with Austria and published in December 2005.

Our belief is that the confidence of the citizens of the European Union will be heightened through solid achievements in areas where the EU can clearly be more effective than the Member States acting on their own. During our Presidency, we will concentrate on the challenges now facing Europe: globalisation, improving competitiveness, population ageing, climate change, and overall security. The European Union needs to demonstrate openness, effective decision-making and an ability to legislate justly. Finland will pursue these objectives during its Presidency. Finland will also work to improve the efficiency, coherence and visibility of the Union's external policies as stated in the conclusions of the European Council meeting of 15-16 June, 2006 in Brussels.

The European Union is strongly committed to multilateralism and the work of the United Nations. As the 60th session of the UN General Assembly will finalize its work in Mid-September, the 61st Session will be launched. Preceding this there will be two major meetings in New York, namely the "High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development", and the "High-Level meeting on the midterm comprehensive global review of the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010". The Presidency of Finland will commence in Geneva with the High-Level Segment of ECOSOC in the beginning of July.

During the Finnish Presidency, here in New York, our major task will be to continue the implementation of the World Summit 2005 outcome on comprehensive reform of the United Nations.

The Presidency is at the service of European citizens also here in New York. In the course of the Presidency we also look forward to cooperating with all our friends and partners during the coming six-month term.




  • Ref: PRES06-406EN
  • EU source: EU Presidency
  • UN forum: 
  • Date: 1/7/2006


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See also
 

European Union Member States