Stories written by Erkki Tuomioja
Erkki Tuomioja is minister of foreign relations for Finland.

HELSINKI PROCESS TARGETS CORRUPTION

By Erkki Tuomioja and - -
At the Helsinki Conference last September, the need to promote global cooperation in the fight against corruption emerged as a central issue, write Leena Luhtanen, Finland\'s Minister of Justice, and Erkki Tuomioja, Minister for Foreign Affairs. In this article the authors write that in recent years, the globalisation of corruption has spurred the international community to acknowledge the problem and demand action that is not restricted to mere recommendations but aims at creating binding international legislation. Perhaps the best example of this is the UN Convention against Corruption, which has been signed by 140 states and ratified by 52, and which went into force in December 2005. Indeed, implementation and effective oversight are the Achilles\' heel of the UN Convention against Corruption as well. Recognising that corruption must be met with cross-border cooperation, Finland has developed a Road Map for action which is being realised together with Friends of the Helsinki Process governments -- Algeria, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, and the United Kingdom -- and in cooperation with other active governments as well as representatives of the private sector and civil society.

THE NORDIC SECRET: MARKET ECONOMY WITHOUT A MARKET SOCIETY

By Erkki Tuomioja and - -
Finland has, once again, been rated the world\'s most competitive economy, writes Erkki Tuomioja, minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland. The fact that not only Finland but Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden as well are usually in the top ten raises an obvious question: why have these welfare states defied the judgments pronounced over twenty years ago that they had outlived their purpose and were ripe for dismantling? This success can be attributed to four factors, the author writes in this article: knowledge and education, entrepreneurship, cooperation and solidarity, and the Nordic model of the welfare state. Is this approach sustainable in our globalising world? The success of the Nordic countries, which are all small economies highly dependent on global trade, indicates that it is, the author writes in this analysis. At the end of the day what will decide the future of our welfare states is still our own political will. If this is decided through democratic procedures, there should be no problem. But we are very much aware that well-financed lobbies are hard at work trying to introduce neoliberal policies to the Nordic countries as well.

TRADE MUST BE BOTH FREE AND FAIR

By Erkki Tuomioja and - -
The current process of globalisation is incomplete, unequal, and characterised by a deficit in democratic governance, writes Erkki Tuomioja, foreign minister of Finland. Tuomioja writes in this analysis that as with elections, it is not enough that trade is free: it has be fair as well. In many developing countries the formal economic sector constitutes a tiny part of the society, the majority of which is either left out of the globalisation process or experiences only its negative effects. Most of the world\'s population lacks protection of the law or social security. It is necessary to expand the space for local initiatives and solutions as a way of limiting the negative effects of globalisation. But this can be done effectively only through multilateral support and rules. We need global social and environmental policies. We have to ask how to democratise the global governance and how to redistribute global assets.
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