News

Finland's Social Democrats, the country's largest opposition party, has proposed the introduction of a food packaging tax as part of its shadow budget.

Tarja Filatov, the chair of the SDP parliamentary group, said the tax would help protect the environment.

Meanwhile Jutta Urpilainen, the leader of the Social Democrats, said that the government had failed to safeguard the operational prerequisites of the country's forest industry after paper manufacturers Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene announced mill closures.

Urpilainen said she was shocked by the scale of the two companies' job cut plans.

"My sympathy lies squarely with the employees who are now faced with the sack as a reward for their hard work," she added.

Urpilainen appealed to the companies' sense of social responsibility and urged them to reconsider their plans.

Stora Enso and UPM reported capacity reduction programmes entailing 1,700 and 1,600 job cuts, respectively.