Finland deposited its instrument of ratification of the UPC Agreement in Brussels with the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union yesterday, so completing the final step required for its ratification to have effect under Article 89(1) of the Agreement.  Finland is the ninth member state to complete this step, the others being Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Sweden.   Therefore, ratification by two more countries (plus the UK and Germany, which together with France, are the mandatory countries) will  bring the total to the 13 required for the UPC system to come into effect;  the UPC Agreement will come into force three months after the deposit of the relevant  instruments of ratification.  However, it is expected that one or both of the UK and Germany will withhold the instrument of ratification until all practical steps toward UPC start-up have been completed, so as to bring the new system into existence under a controlled timetable.