Kingston Upon Hull West and Hessle Liberal Democrats

Diana Wallis speaks in the Parliamentary debate on the Northern Dimension in the Finnish Parliament

Diana Wallis MEP spoke in the Parliamentary debate on the Northern Dimension in the Finnish Parliament yesterday. You can read what she said below.

Speech by Diana Wallis MEP, Vice President of the European Parliament in the Parliamentary debate on the Northern Dimension Policy, Finnish Parliament, Helsinki 26th October 2008

Firstly, I would like to say how very privileged I am to be invited to speak at this gathering in this splendid room. I would like to thank you for the invitation to this parliamentary debate on Northern Dimension ahead of the 60th session of the Nordic Council.

I want to use this opportunity to say something about where we are with the Northern Dimension as my first point and as my second point I want to be slightly provocative about what happens next. This is a Parliamentary debate after all.

It is highly appropriate that the debate takes place here in Helsinki, after all Finland is in a way of the home of the Northern Dimension. It started under the Finns after all. Under the last Finnish presidency the Northern Dimension received a huge boost with new Partnership arrangement and now we await the Swedish presidency further enhancing the Northern Dimension in the second half of next year.

I, indeed the whole of the European Parliament, have been a big supporter of the Northern Dimension since its inception. The European Parliament has championed at least three parliamentary debates; the one we had last year being based on the very detailed report from Alexander Stubb on the Baltic Strategy. We also had a report and a key debate on the Nordstream Baltic pipeline. I can say that we had a full plenary for that debate. We have also recently had a debate and resolution on Arctic governance.

The North is very much in the news!

Of course, during this time the Northern Dimension has changed. It is now a Partnership not an EU policy - despite the fact that the word policy has crept into the title of this debate.

As an EU policy it perhaps had a closer connection with our European Parliament. Not only the debates as I mentioned but in its previous incarnation I was invited to attend all the Ministerial meetings (as an aside I was probably the only constant attendee as Ministers have come and gone!). So we are used to promoting parliamentary involvement. We, of course, hosted a parliamentary conference in Brussels last spring - as has been already referred to - and next spring we plan to do the same thing. The meeting today has the same quality.

The alternative to such parliamentary input is, I am sorry to say, Ministers sitting round a table reading out prepared statements. I believe most parliamentarians always wanted the Northern Dimension to be something that delivered change on the ground by cross border working and partnership in the region, by the use of projects in the area of environment, health, transport and environment. Above it was to include the involvement of all local representatives.

However I have to ask the question: how many of you have had or have direct involvement or experience of the Northern Dimension? If you look at the European Commission Northern Dimension website there seems to have been little or no activity for a year. In fact the most recent update is a project application form posted earlier this month, so I would I advise you to have a go, make an application! Perhaps this is no coincidence given the upcoming ministerial meeting in St Petersburg, so at least some activity can be reported on!

This brings me to my second theme I wonder if the Northern Dimension as we know it, or at least knew it has run out of steam.

Looking at the reality from the European Parliament, the Baltic Sea Strategy came out of the work and input of many of in the European Parliament, in particular the work from a colleague of mine from the UK, Christopher Beazley. I can count one State President one Foreign Minister and one European Minister all former MEPs. There has been a huge push to deliver the Baltic strategy by the Commission by the end of the year and note it is to be delivered to the EU Council. This is an EU internal policy prepared by our regional services - sadly it is far from clear that this needs the Northern Dimension Partnership to deliver be delivered.

Likewise, the other geographical sector of the Northern Dimension; is that of the Arctic. In the European Parliament we are about to receive a cross-cutting policy document from the Commission which has its origins in the EU Maritime Strategy. But any who attended the recent the Nordic Council Ministers meeting in Iluissat under the heading Common Concern for the Arctic will have witnessed the presence of nearly a dozen Commission officials representing a up to seven different departments. That is an indication of how seriously this is being taken. So we will have a holistic policy which will focus EU attention on participating in Arctic Council properly. So I would ask again how far do we need the Northern Dimension partnership to further this policy?

In raising the question I put it provocatively - this is after all a debate - certainly from the European Parliament's perspective, it has to be a question how far we need a Northern Dimension partnership now. There has to be more evidence that this is working on the ground that there are actual new projects that are being taken up and developed with the active engagement and input of parliamentarians across the region.

Thank you