Finnish President Halonen spoke at the Parliament focusing on EU as a global actor

According to Parliaments' press release on the international situation she warned that "the international security threats we are facing are increasingly non-military", and that threats such as environmental degradation and natural disasters were becoming increasingly threatening. On the EU's growing international and crises management role she said that "the EU's crisis management policy rests on the combination of military and civilian action. A coherent EU is a strong actor". She also stated that EU development policy can also be seen as part of EU security policy.

She mentioned the EU as the largest development cooperation and trade partner of developing countries, and also the world’s biggest donor of development aid. She hoped, that the EU institutions can agree on development financing in good cooperation to secure continuous EU funding and a wide range of EU actions also from the beginning of 2007.

The president also pointed out th link between development and trade, which is not always automatically a positive one, and in order to reinforce the positive link political will and skill is needed.