Current affairs

Speech by Minister Pekka Haavisto at the UN Biodiversity Summit 30.9.2020

”Climate change and biodiversity need to be mainstreamed in all policy planning and budgeting,” said Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto, in the concluding remarks of his statement at the UN Biodiversity Summit on Wednesday 30 September. Finland keeps a high profile in biodiversity matters at the UN General Assembly: President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö signed the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature to protect biodiversity and Foreign Minister Haavisto stressed the importance of biodiversity at the Leaders Event for Nature and People Meeting organized by WWF on Monday 28 September.

Speech by Minister Skinnari at the Tax Inspectors Without Borders Initiative event

The meeting of the EU development ministers on 29 September will be held as a video conference. Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will represent Finland at the meeting.

Foreign Minister of Estonia Urmas Reinsalu, Foreign Minister of Finland Pekka Haavisto and Foreign Minister of Sweden Ann Linde have agreed that in case of a new significant information on the catastrophe of the M/S Estonia that has not been reported before, Estonia, Finland and Sweden will jointly assess the new information.

The European Commission offers the Member States technical assistance to promote sustainable economic growth, competitiveness and employment, for instance. Assistance has so far been offered from the Structural Reform Support Programme, which will be replaced by the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) during the new Financial Framework period. The approval process for the new TSI Regulation will soon be completed. The call for projects 2021 has now been opened. The national deadline for submitting the applications is 28 October 2020.

The stakeholder consultations on Finland’s Africa strategy will start on 30 September at 13.00–14.30 with an online event open to all.

Finland and Sweden have joined INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020, as we undertook to do in the Joint Statement given by six like-minded countries on November 29th, 2019.

Global response to address global problems: We need the 75-year-old UN now more than ever. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most events of this year’s high-level week and the 75th anniversary session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will be held virtually. The events of the high-level week will spread over a two-week period from 21 September to 2 October.

Are you an expert in the field of external relations? Are you interested in promoting the values and interests of the European Union in the world? The European Union is looking for specialists to work mainly in the European External Action Service (EEAS). The application period is ongoing until 13 October.

Finland will participate in the EU Integrated Resolve (EU IR 20) Exercise, which will be held between 21 September and 4 December 2020.

Speech by Minister Ville Skinnari at the Annual Ministerial Meeting of LDCs 17.9.2020

Finland Promotion Board’s ‘Hän’ campaign won the Grand Prix Award for the greatest marketing achievement of the year 2019 and the Gold Award as the best entry in the text series in the competition Vuoden Huiput

The EU Foreign Affairs Council will meet in Brussels on Monday 21 September. Finland’s representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto. The main topics on the agenda will be Belarus, the relationship between the EU and the African Union, and Libya.

At the presidential session on Friday 18 September, the President of the Republic appointed a new ambassador and decided on two authorisations to represent Finland.

The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals are a positive example of what the world can accomplish by working together. In September, the matter is debated in the UN and on social media influencer's channels.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will visit Berlin on 20-22 September 2020.

On 17 September 2020, 17 participating States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) decided to commission a report on serious human rights violations related to the presidential election in Belarus. Finland is one of the countries that took part in the decision.

The European Court of Human Rights issued a judgement concerning Finland on 17 September 2020, finding a violation of Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The budget proposal focuses on improvements to the ability of Finland’s missions abroad to operate effec-tively; participation in international crisis management, conflict prevention and mediation; measures to en-sure an appropriate level of development finance; and post-crisis measures following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic and post-crisis management greatly highlight the need for international cooperation. Post-pandemic recovery funding, such as the EU’s recovery package, will also bring new opportunities for commercial and economic cooperation.