Prime Minister Sipilä participated in the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference in London 

Government Communications Department
Press release 44/2016
4 February 2016

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä participated in the fourth International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria in London on 4 February together with around 40 other Heads of State or Government. The Prime Minister also had several bilateral meetings and an informal meeting with the Nordic Prime Ministers.

Minister Sipilä informed that Finland will respond to the needs in Syria and its neighbouring countries by pledging EUR 25 million for the current year. The resources will be channelled from the Foreign Ministry's budget. The participating countries promised to support Syria by a total of over USD 6bn in 2016 and by about USD 5bn in 2017–2020. According to UN Secretary General, this is the biggest sum ever pledged in any single conference.

Prime Minister Sipilä addressed the Conference at the pledging segment under the theme Jobs and Economic Development.

‘Finland wants to take part in helping the people and society of Syria and its neighbouring countries. Finland will direct its support to areas where we can make a real difference. The focus areas of our support will be education, women, innovations, and ICT,’ Prime Minister Sipilä said.

For us, our emphasis is on education for all children, on improving women's rights and on employment. We are looking forward to innovative partnerships to boost, for example, youth employment.

In the course of the day, Prime Minister Sipilä held bilateral negotiations with Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Anthony Lake, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), King Abdullah II of Jordan, Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, Foreign Minister of Iraq, and Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, the current holder of the EU Presidency. Prime Minister Sipilä also briefly discussed UK's forthcoming EU referendum with Prime Minister David Cameron.

Nordic Prime Ministers met

The Nordic Prime Ministers held an informal meeting after the Conference. The main topic of discussion was migration. 

‘It was a very good discussion about migration, which is topical at the moment. The Nordic countries are a family and we work well together. Exchanging ideas and information on a regular basis guarantees that we can find solutions to our common challenges together,’ noted the Prime Minister.

‘Today we talked a lot about how to ensure proper integration and about border questions. It is important to ensure that the current challenges do not curb Nordic cooperation, which is ongoing for instance in our endeavours to dismantle trade barriers between our countries,’ the Prime Minister said. 

Finland holds the Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers this year and will host the meeting of the Nordic countries in the summer.

Inquiries: Anna-Kaisa Heikkinen, Special Adviser (International Affairs), tel. +358 40 748 3867, Prime Minister’s Office and Claus Jerker Lindroos, Unit for Humanitarian Assistance and Policy, tel. +358 40 132 1416, and Jussi Nummelin, Desk Officer responsible for support to Syria, tel. +358 50 430 2018, Ministry for Foreign Affairs