Finns and Irish smooth the way to their presidencies

Date: 16/11/1995

The Finns are progressing well with plans for their very first turn at the Euro-presidency.

This month a delegation from Helsinki went to Dublin to study how the Irish are preparing for their own presidency in the second half of next year.

There was plenty of solemn note-taking and much was undoubtedly gleaned from Ireland's long experience of staging informal councils, summits and the rest of the presidency paraphenalia.

But the Finns were not particularly impressed with the scale of Ireland's advanced planning, because when it comes to thinking ahead, no-one can outdo the

Scandinavians - the Finnish presidency is not until the second half of 1999.

The Irish, meanwhile, are doing their pre-presidency groundwork thoroughly: the local council in Dublin has just decreed that there shall be no road works in the city during the presidency to avoid embarrassing snarl-ups and unsightly concrete mixers when limousines bearing ministers cruise between meeting place and airport.

All essential holes must be filled in and road cones banished by the end of June 1996. Locals have greeted the news as the best thing to come out of Brussels to the benefit of the nation since Ireland joined the EU more than 20 years ago.