Finland will be hosting more than 130 meetings around the country, with more to be announced soon.
The costs of security during the six-month term are 15 or even 20 times as much as they were during Finland's previous presidency in 1999; rising from just over half a million euros to well over 10 million. The increase is to be expected, as the EU has nearly twice as many member states now, and security has become a top priority.
Finnish police have been granted eight million euros so far for security arrangements. The biggest expenditure increase will be for police officers' overtime pay. Finland's security experts emphasize that they hope the extra measures will be largely invisible to the public.
"Probably you will see black cars driving from the airport to meeting places, that's all you're going to see, at least I hope so." said Inspector General of Police, Martti Kunnasvouri.
The currently budgeted eight million euros will not include additional funding needed for Border Guard and Defence Forces security measures. The total bill is expected to rise as further EU meetings are scheduled.
European Threats Assessed Behind the increased spending are growing security concerns. During the past seven years Europe has been shaken by violent anti-globalisation protests in Gothenburg and Genoa and terror attacks in Madrid and London. The spectre of the 9/11 attacks in the USA still haunts much governmental security thinking in Europe. Here in Finland, there have been worrying incidents recently, including the May Day unrest and later the arson attack against railway warehouses in Helsinki, worryingly close to Finlandia Hall. But police do not think these are bad omens for the presidency term. "There's not a clear connection between the EU presidency and what happened here in Helsinki." said Kunnasvouri. The first ministerial meeting of the term begins at Finlandia Hall on July 6th. Its director says discreet security has always been a major selling point for Finland. Auni Palo, the Director of Finlandia Hall said "That's the best thing that we can offer the world as well, Finland is known as a very safe country." YLE24