Oostenrijk en Finland komen met gezamenlijk programma voor voorzitterschap Europese Unie in 2006 (en)

Austria and Finland are to prepare a common program for their EU presidencies in 2006, it has emerged.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Helsinki on Wednesday (1 September), Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and the Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel confirmed the idea.

"We have a common goal to build a common program for the whole year, and we will have a lot of cooperation during the year 2006", Matti Vanhanen, Finland's prime minister, said in Helsinki according to AFP.

The two countries often worked closely together during the negotiations on a new European Constitution, sometimes leading the battle in defence of small countries' rights.

"We think it will be a practical tool for continuity", adviser to the Finnish Prime Minister Helena Tuuri in EU affairs told the EUobserver.

A special seminar will be organised in spring to prepare the two presidencies. Austria will be at the helm from 1 January 2006 with Finland taking over from 1 July.

The year 2006 is set to be a difficult one for the European Union with the ratification of the European Constitution via referenda in a number of member states. Neither Austria nor Finland will be holding such a referendum, however.

The other difficult task for the two presidencies in 2006 will be to find agreement over financing the EU's budget from 2007 to 2013.

Surprise dinner in Berlin

On his way back from Finland Wolfgang Schüssel made a flying visit to the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in Berlin, where they discussed EU finances over dinner.

Germany as well as Austria are net contributors to the EU budget and want to limit the EU spending to 1 percent of Gross National Income (GNI) in future.

But the current Prodi commission suggested in February this year that the EU budget should be raised from 100 billion euro a year to around 143 billion euro per year to keep up with new tasks falling under the Brussels executive.

The Austrian visit to Berlin was planned for months but kept secret. The Austrian embassy in Berlin was only recently informed and had strict orders not to inform the public in advance, the Austrian daily Die Presse reports.

Finland, Germany and Austria are three of the six EU member states paying more to the EU budget than they get in return. The other three net contributors to the EU coffers are France, the Netherlands and the UK.