Current Affairs

Finland will grant EUR 4.5 million in additional support to help Ukraine’s energy sector. The support will be used to address acute energy needs in schools, early education centres and hospitals and to develop the country’s energy efficiency in the longer term.

The atmosphere in Tanzania has become more open with the current president. There is a lot of talk about problems with women’s rights, for example, and this makes it easier to promote these rights, according to Finland’s Ambassador to Tanzania Teresa Zitting.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit the United States from 7 to 9 December.

Finland’s additional support will help the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) provide mobile health services, safe births and family planning for women who have been forced from their homes by the drought and food crisis in Somalia.

The Finnish Government submitted a proposal on Finland’s accession to NATO to Parliament on 5 December. The consultation on the draft proposal generated about 1,600 responses. The Government reviewed the proposal based on the responses and supplemented the rationale with specifications concerning cooperation between the Government and the President of the Republic, Parliament’s role in the handling of NATO matters and in making decisions on them, and the status of Åland Islands under international law.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has concluded the cooperation negotiations it initiated at the Service Centre for Entry Permits in Kouvola in October 2022. As a result, 17 public-service employment relationships will be terminated on a voluntary basis.

Almost half of the respondents to an international country image survey indicated that their perception of Finland improved during the last year. Finland’s NATO membership process has greatly contributed to increasing Finland’s visibility abroad and to improving perceptions of Finland.

Finland’s Ambassador in Addis Ababa Outi Holopainen says that while her daily life is sometimes tense in Ethiopia, it is also extremely rewarding. Addis Ababa houses the African Union’s headquarters, which in a way makes it the centre of African diplomacy.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which will be held in Łódź, Poland, on 30 November–1 December. Poland holds the OSCE Chairpersonship in 2022.

Joint statement by the Foreign Ministers of Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and Ukraine on 28 November 2022.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto visited Kyiv, Ukraine, on 28 November together with Nordic and Baltic foreign ministers. In Kyiv, the foreign ministers met the President and the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, among others, and reaffirmed their countries’ firm support to Ukraine.

According to a recent evaluation, Finland’s influencing towards the EU’s development policy has been relevant and successful. However, the evaluation identified deficiencies, too, such as gaps in the strategic guidance of activities at different levels.

The second meeting of the Permanent Joint Mechanism between Finland, Sweden and Türkiye was held on 25 November.

At the presidential session on 25 November, the President of the Republic appointed two new non-resident Ambassadors.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend a meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest from 29 to 30 November.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs requests opinions on the draft Decree of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on Fees for Services Produced by the Foreign Service in 2023. The consultation round will be open until 7 December 2022. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs proposes an increase of EUR 20 to the fee for the EU Emergency Travel Document (ETD) issued to EU citizens.

Ukraine will survive the war through its great determination and with the help of external assistance, according to Finland’s Ambassador in Kyiv Jaakko Lehtovirta. He says that the country that eventually emerges after the war will be very different from the Ukraine we knew before 2014.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will visit London on 24 November. Minister Skinnari will meet the United Kingdom’s Minister of State at the Department for International Trade Greg Hands and Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Andrew Mitchell.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Haavisto will visit Paris on 23 November. He will meet Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Catherine Colonna and President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the French National Assembly Jean-Louis Bourlanges.

Finland’s Ambassador for Climate Change Jan Wahlberg says that while the Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt has been criticised for its weak results, progress was nevertheless made to help the world’s poorest countries stricken by climate disasters. Future conferences of the parties will decide on the structure of the fund and its sources of finance.