All but three EU countries join free fruit scheme 

Only Finland, Latvia and Sweden chose not to take part in the first year of the scheme, which provides €90 million ($125 million) of EU funding to help pay for and distribute fresh and processed fruit and vegetables. These countries will be able to take part in the scheme's later years if they wish. 

That cash amount will be matched in each country by national and private funds. The scheme begins in the 2009/10 school year. 

Countries will be able to restrict national programmes to EU-grown fruit or imports, depending on price, availability and seasonality. They will also have to set up strategies that include educational and awareness-raising initiatives. 

Many European Union countries already have fairly successful subsidised fruit and vegetable programmes in schools but others, such as in central and eastern Europe, lack such schemes. 

One of the EU funding scheme's main aims is to halt the bloc's alarming trend in obesity, especially among children. 

An estimated 22 million children in the Union are overweight. More than five million of these are obese, and this figure is due to rise by 400,000 every year. 

Most Europeans fail to meet the World Health Organisation's recommendation of 400 grams for daily fruit and vegetable consumption, with the downward trend particularly evident among the young, European Commission experts say. 

Greece has by far the highest daily intake of fruit and vegetables in the EU, then Portugal, Spain, Italy, Cyprus and Denmark; Slovakia ranks bottom of the table, while France and the Netherlands just about reach the WHO target. 

"I'm delighted that so many member states have decided to make use of this excellent scheme," EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said in a statement. 

"I believe it can make a major contribution to encouraging our young people to eat more of these healthy and tasty products," she said. 

Little money for a lot of bureaucracy

Finnish officials told EurActiv that the country supported the idea and planned to join the scheme next year. "There is not much EU money available compared to the bureaucracy the scheme would generate for national ministries, so we need to carefully plan how we want to use the money to get the best impact," said Sirpa Sarlio-Lähteenkorva of the Finnish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. 

According to a study commissioned by the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture, if the scheme were extended to cover all levels of education, it would result in one item of fruit per pupil per month. "We need strategic thinking on how to focus our action, create critical mass and have a lasting impact on young people's behaviour," Sarlio-Lähteenkorva added. 

(EurActiv with Reuters.)