Finland’s EU presidency will soon begin, on 1^st July 2006. What are the presidency’s priorities in the field of education for the next six months? The main objectives identified by Finland are:

• To finalise decisions on the multiannual programmes (the Integrated Action Programme in Lifelong Learning, the Culture 2007, Media 2007 and Youth in Action programmes), and make these programmes operational by the beginning of the year 2007;
• To focus on quality and equity in education and their connection with the economics of education. These issues will be discussed during a conference planned for the 28^th and 29^th September in Helsinki.

The city of Helsinki will also be hosting on 4^th and 5^th December 2006 the third ministerial conference on enhanced European cooperation in vocational education and training, which follows the Copenhagen (2002) and Maastricht (2004) previous ones.

Beside the above-mentioned tasks, Finland will also work on the promotion of students and teachers mobility between the EU and Russia, and discuss the Commission's initiatives on the European Institute of Technology (EIT) and its latest communication on modernising European universities (see ACA's Newsletter Education Europe of May 2006).