Finland wants to welcome Bulgaria as a full EU member state in a few months, and it has firmly decided to open its labour market for Bulgarians from 1 January 2007, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told his Bulgarian counterpart Sergey Stanishev.

Bulgaria's prime minister is on a working visit to Helsinki at the invitation of Matti Vanhanen. The process of EU enlargement has favourable political and economic dimensions, the Finnish prime minister added and assured his guest that from the first day of our membership in the EU, Finland will treat Bulgaria the way it does old member states.

Stanishev praised the excellent bilateral relations and expressed his wish for improvement the interaction with Finland in the context of its coming EU Presidency, which will coincide with the decisive moment of the country's EU integration.

Not only Bulgaria will benefit from the accession on 1 January 2007. It will be positive for its political stability, the rhythm of reforms, which will be given further impetus, said Sergey Stamishev, adding that the possible delay will discourage Bulgarians and will have a negative influence on the unstable region of the Western Balkans.

An excellent basis for the development of the bilateral relations is the fact that Bulgaria is the third favorite tourist destination for Finnish citizens, after Spain and Greece. Only for the last year, the rise of Finnish tourists to Bulgaria has increased by nearly 40%.

As a country holding the EU Presidency from 1 July 2006, Finland will stick to the line of support for the solution to the case with the Bulgarian nurses in Libya and will work in close cooperation with Bulgaria, said Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen.

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