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SCMP Reporter

IF Finland, Norway and Sweden become full members of the European Community in 1995, as planned, they will add just six per cent to the EC's population, but 50 per cent to its area.

  The Finnish Consul-General in Hong Kong, Hannu Uusi-Videnoja, said the main issue concerning Finns in the upcoming union with the EC was land.

   He said Finland wanted to strengthen its agricultural sector, in part to avoid a population shift from rural to urban areas.

  Finland is larger than Britain and the Republic of Ireland combined.

  ''Negotiations about our entry to the EC began on February 1 this year, and an ambitious deadline has been set for their completion - early 1994,'' he said.

   ''When the talks began, there were 29 principal issues to be discussed. About half of these have been satisfactorily concluded, but it is true that the tougher decisions'' on agriculture and the EC's regional policy had still not been finalised, he added.

   ''We are asking the EC to take into account the special circumstances and the geographic constraints we face.

  ''Being so far north, our growing season is so much shorter than most European nations, and although agriculture employs only five per cent of our workforce it keeps many more people on the land.

  ''If our agriculture was allowed to die, then even more people would move to the south of the country - and that would be a strategic security worry.

  ''We have a 1,200-kilometre land border with Russia, and that will soon be the eastern border of the European Community,'' Mr Uusi-Videnoja said.

  ''Concerns about further pressure on our agricultural sector, anxieties also partly shared by Sweden, shaped our request for a longer period to adjust to the requirements of the EC's Common Agricultural Policy.''   Once negotiations were completed, the deal must be approved by parliament, and then it would go to a popular referendum. There was no constitutional requirement to hold a referendum, he said, but politically it would be essential.

  ''Recent opinion polls show more than 50 per cent support for EC membership, but as the shape of the final deal becomes clearer the active anti-EC groups will intensify their efforts,'' he said.

  ''If all goes according to schedule, Finland might be a full member of the EC by early 1995,'' he added.

  ''The very latest we can complete the process is early 1996, because in that year the EC will look again at its major policy positions on a common defence and foreign policy and assess the progress of full European union.''    The Finns are acutely conscious that nowhere in Europe is the distinction between wealth and poverty more acute than in the living standards of Finland and Russia. As a result, they are actively trying to promote economic development work in St Petersburg.



Land key issue for EC union