Finland’s EU presidency
Finland’s EU presidency schedule is a busy one. It will be about the aging European population, about the purchasing power of citizens, globalisation, global warming, and security in Europe. Finland is to take over from Austria on 1 July 2006, and handing over the presidency to Germany in early 2007. Finland will also put the environment back on the EU agenda, which has been a subject not high on the priority list.
Finland said that a prolonged “period of reflection”, decided on after the French and Dutch rejections, would be insufficient.
Finland has already vowed to press the green agenda both in Europe and with neighbouring giant Russia, to show that protecting the environment doesn’t necessarily harm economic growth, and can even strengthen it.
It also wishes to ensure energy supplies to the EU from Russia, on which it is itself highly dependent.The final programme of the Finnish presidency will be set at the end of the Austrian presidency in June.
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen is to present the plan to Finnish lawmakers June 21.
Finland joined the now 25-member Union in 1995 and held the six-month rotatingCLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE AT The EUBusiness.
Administrator @ May 25, 2006