Finnish lakes to guide the EU

By Emily Smith

Date: 24/05/06

With its 190,000 lakes and 240,000 square kilometres of woodland, Finland should know a lot about natural biodiversity.

Jussi Soramaki, Finland's environment minister, said that for his country there would be "two major presidency biodiversity issues" - getting conclusions on the communication adopted at the Environment Council in October and making sure enough money goes to biodiversity protection in the EU's 2007-13 budget.

Soramaki said that the October Council should stress the need to "integrate biodiversity targets into other sectors". In particular this will mean discussing the links between climate change and biodiversity. "We need to think of strategies...how do we deal with climate change, but also how do we make sure climate change mitigation measures don't affect biodiversity?" he said.

Finland will also underline the need for speed, as Europe rushes towards a 2010 deadline for halting biodiversity loss. Soramaki pointed out that since signing up to the target Europe had "lost five years on the road...a lot of work has been done but without any guiding principles." These principles are now needed for Europe to make the most of the time remaining.

Soramaki said that the Council conclusions should mention the need to enhance co-operation between the EU bio- diversity strategy and national strategies.

The Finnish government is currently drafting its own national biodiversity plan, which it hopes to finalise during this year.

National biodiversity plans are supposed to work in tandem with the EU agenda but allow more room for countries to address their own geographical concerns. For example, said Soramaki, "in Finland we're not that interested in tackling desertification".

Biodiversity issues that do worry Finland include the protection of coniferous trees in its boreal forests. Cleaning up the Baltic Sea is another major environmental concern, as are carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from vehicles in a country so large and sparsely populated that using a car is hard to avoid.

The Austrian EU presidency is hoping for political agreement on the 2007-13 EU budget at next month's summit meeting. But environmentalists say the European nature funding stream, known as LIFE+, risks being drained dry in the budget's first reading.

The Finnish environment ministry will try to defend LIFE+ if, as expected, Finland oversees a second reading in the second half of 2006.

Comments by Jussi Soramaki, Finland's environment minister, on his country's priorities regarding biodiversity during the Finnish Presidency of the EU, July to December 2006.
Article is part of a European Voice Special Report, 'Biodiversity'.