Finland Rolls on New Proposal at the Start of its EU Presidency

Finland's new role at the head of the six month EU presidency term will likely start off on quite a tense note, since the Finnish Prime Minister is going to endorse a proposal regarding higher alcohol taxes all across Europe. The Helsinki administration has actually placed this issue among the first to be discussed during a summit of all finance ministers, expected to take place on July 11th.

In an official statement released yesterday by the presidency, regarding the current Council agenda, it was announced: "It is necessary to harmonize the tax rates to even out the price levels of alcohol". It also added that this kind of measure is intended to achieve an increase in the minimum excise duty rates of the European Union on alcohol in general, and on spirits in particular.

However, when presenting the new program to all members of the European Parliament yesterday, the Finnish premier, Matti Vanhanen, did not place such a great highlight on this issue, but on other aspects to be tackled, like the EU constitution and the future enlargement of the European Union. "During our presidency, we will try to look outwards and inwards… [there will be no more] pessimistic speeches about the crisis in the EU, I believe the current problems can be overcome."

As far as the enlargement goes, the Finns are going to have a difficult time with two major problems. On one hand, the highly sensitive settling of the Cyprus- Turkey-Greece issue, with Turkey facing the halting of the accession process if it does not open trade with Greek Cypriot ships. On the other, there is the issue of Bulgaria and Romania's EU accession plans next January. To this, one might add economic cooperation with Russia, the chemical law REACH and the services directive.

However, Vanhanen looks optimistic, stating that Europe must prove the fact that it remains open since the "enlargement is also our strategic answer to the challenges of globalization".