A green presidency

Finland has set an ambitious green agenda for its six-month EU presidency. Speaking to journalists in Helsinki recently, Finnish government officials explained what the environment would look like when Austria handed over the reins on 1 July.

The main environmental challenge for Helsinki will be to end three years of debate and disagreement over the proposed EU chemicals legislation REACH.

The proposal goes to its second reading in the European Parliament and Council of Ministers after the summer break and the Finnish presidency will be trying to get the two camps to agree on a text during second reading, rendering it unnecessary to go for a further round of haggling, where the Council of Ministers and MEPs would have to try to thrash out compromises.

"One of the most important targets for Finland is to avoid REACH going to conciliation," said Pekka Jalkanen of the Finnish environment ministry.

"We are optimistic about getting an agreement on this and finalising everything during our presidency."

His colleague Jussi SoramŠki said Finland would also be working hard to protect European wildlife. A communication on protecting biodiversity was published last month and will go to Parliament and Council during the next six months.

SoramŠki said Finland would push to make biodiversity targets part of the bigger EU picture, for example linking them with the Natura 2000 conservation programme. Finland is also keen to extend the network of Natura areas to ocean sites.

With a 4,500km coastline, Finland is in the habit of looking out to sea. Landlocked Austria hasbeen passive on the new marine strategy proposal, but Helsinki is hoping to negotiate a common position at the December Environment Council.

Maria Laamanen said there were many difficult issues to discuss ahead of this, especially the problem of agreeing what is meant by "good environmental status".

The state of the Baltic Sea is a national marine concern that will get attention during the presidency. Oil transport and eutrophication - or the excessive plant growth caused especially by pollution from fertilisers and sewage - have left the Baltic Sea suffering environmentally, a problem Finland hopes to raise this year.

Henna Haapala said work in this area could also help EU-Russia relations.

Work between EU Baltic states and Moscow at the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (Helcom) has already seen Russia make huge improvements to its oil transport, she explained. A Baltic Sea action plan is due from Helcom next year.

Transporting gas from Russia through pipelines under the Baltic Sea could cause some environmental disturbances but is more a political question than a green one, according to the ministry's Olli Pahkala. Finland hoped to play the role of an objective third party between Europe and Russia on this topic, he said.

Finland has no national position on the issue, he continued, but Pahkala hopes this will be one of many areas in which the Finnish presidency could smooth EU-Russia relations.

The ongoing battle against global warming also remains high on the agenda. The next meeting of parties to the UN convention on climate change is scheduled for November in Nairobi, Kenya. But following a landmark agreement last year to keep the Kyoto Protocol alive after 2012, Finland will be content with more modest results.

"It will be hard to get headlines, the time for breakthroughs is not yet," said Outi BerghŠll, the environment ministry's spokes-person. "This is very much a long-term issue, there's no doubt about it. But it is always important to have a good [ongoing] process."

This should mean getting countries to decide on new actions at the annual climate change meetings, rather than explaining what different governments are doing as tends now to be the case.

Jalkanen added that he was even "very encouraged by internal US developments". "The situation is very different to two years ago," he said.

Finland has to calm fears over changes to the Life environmental funding programme, with conservation groups saying the current proposal drains money away from their concerns.

The groundwater directive, meanwhile, faces a tricky time with MEPs and governments when conciliation talks start in September. Waste legislation poses another challenge, officials admit, with governments split over a proposed revision of the EU waste framework directive.

But Euro 5 emission limits for cars should go through smoothly, according to officials, with a first reading agreement possible this year.

Finland has set an ambitious green agenda for its six-month EU presidency. Speaking to journalists in Helsinki recently, Finnish government officials explained what the environment would look like when Austria handed over the reins on 1 July.