A total of 120 peacekeepers will be chosen for the mission from among an initial pool of over 900 applicants, most of them reservists.
The tests which started on Thursday kicked off with a 12 minute run during which applicants had to cover a minimum of 2300 metres in order to continue with the selection process.
49 year-old Lieutenant-Commander Olli Pekka Jokela had no problem passing this part of the test.
"I've always wanted to be involved in international assignments, and now it is possible and to the benefit of my family and myself," says Jokela.
Among the youngest runners was 20-year-old Noora Heiskari, who mustered out of active military service in January.
"I had to think it over a while, since I haven't finished school. But, school will still be there. Not an awful lot of chances like this come along," she explains her decision to apply to join the crew.
Challenging mission
Of the around 250 applicants asked to take part in the final screening process, a third are Defence Forces personnel, and the rest are reservists.
The two days of evaluation will assess applicants’ health, physical and psychological condition, and language skills, according to the Finnish Navy's Commander Jukka-Pekka Schroderus.
"It is challenging to be onboard a vessel for weeks at a time as part of a small community in which one's individuality is absorbed into that community," says Schroderus.
The aim of the EU's Operation Atalanta is to protect food aid shipments to Somalia against pirates. The Finnish Navy's mine vessel Pohjanmaa is to join the force at the start of next year.
The mission of preventing piracy is an extremely difficult one, points out the Pohjanmaa's skipper, Commander Mika Raunu.
"This operation could be compared to assigning eight police cars to an area the size of Europe to prevent all crime there. The dimensions and the challenges in this operation are completely comparable to that," says Raunu.
