Current affairs

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will accept concept papers for funding under the Public Sector Investment Facility for developing countries until 5 March 2020. Please send your concept paper to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to pif@formin.fi. Concept papers received after the due date will not be processed.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto called Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Javad Zarif, expressing that Finland firmly condemns the attack and demanding an explanation as to why crisis management troops taking part in counter-terrorism were targeted. Minister Zarif reiterated Iran’s views and assured that Iran has no intention of escalating the situation any further.

The negotiations on the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) will start in Strasbourg in March 2020. Notable progress towards this was made this autumn as the Council of the EU gave supplementary negotiating directives to the Commission, which conducts the negotiations on behalf of the EU, and reaffirmed the EU’s willingness to resume the negotiations with the parties to the ECHR.

Business with Impact (BEAM), a programme launched by Business Finland and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 2015, will expire at the end of 2019. It is time to take a look at the results and at new ways to develop innovation support.