European Union
Commission adopts 2023 Enlargement package, recommends to open negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, to grant candidate status to Georgia and to open accession negotiations with BiH, once the necessary degree of compliance is achieved
Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio will attend an informal meeting of EU trade ministers in Valencia, Spain, on 19–20 October. The ministers will discuss economic security and trade relations between the EU and India. The ministers will also discuss the EU’s ongoing bilateral trade negotiations.
Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs is planning to launch a tendering process for outsourcing its entry permit application submission services in 2024. As a preparation for the upcoming tendering process, the Ministry will survey the market in autumn 2023.
Some of the prices of services provided by the Finnish missions and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will rise. The new prices will enter into force on 1 September 2023.
EU foreign affairs ministers will meet at the Informal Meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers (Gymnich) in Toledo in Spain on 30–31 August. State Secretary Lauri Tierala will represent Finland at the meeting.
Heads of Finland’s missions abroad and foreign policy leaders will meet again at the Annual Meeting of Heads of Mission in Helsinki on 21–23 August.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has appointed Johanna Kaprio-Papageorgiou as Press Counsellor at Finland’s Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels from 16 August 2023 to 31 July 2026.
EU foreign ministers will convene in Brussels on 20 July. Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will represent Finland at the meeting. The ministers will also have an informal exchange of views with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken via videoconference.
Finland will assume the presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) on 1 July 2023 for one year.
Comments on the Ministry for Foreign Affairs proposal may be given at lausuntopalvelu.fi until 8 August 2023.