Current affairs

The municipal elections will be held in Finland on Sunday 13 June 2021. Advance voting will be possible at the Embassy of Finland in Athens from 2nd to 5th June 2021. You can exercise your right to vote also through postal voting. Due to Covid outbreak, it is recommended to order the postal voting documents also in the case you are planning to cast your vote at the polling station.

According to the instructions received from the Greek authorities, if you do not have a Greek social security number (AMKA), you can act as below in order to receive a temporary AMKA for Covid vaccination. Currently, there is no information on the actual vaccination process for temporary AMKA holders. We'll let you know as soon as we get more information.

Respond to the European Commission’s questionnaire on an online visa application process.

To support people travelling on essential business during the coronavirus pandemic, Finnish missions abroad keep their websites updated on local travel restrictions. Rules and guidance in different countries can change rapidly, which is why the Ministry for Foreign Affairs advises people travelling on business to always check the official website of the country of destination, to consider whether the trip is essential, and to act responsibly.

Wolt has grown in five years from a Finnish start-up company with 6 founding members to an international company that employs 2500+ people and has a presence in 23 countries and over 150 cities

Petra Pakkanen, Director of the Finnish Institute at Athens, has returned to Athens after a twenty-year break. She thinks the best thing about Greece is light, both in the sky and in people's minds. Petra's enthusiasm for classical studies began with studying Latin in Kajaani and has taken her to Greece and to many other countries as a scholar. Her own current research concerns tanning of leather in ancient Greece, and through that we learn that also in Finland there is a long tradition of tanning and within it for example a specialty of tanning fish skin.

In 2020, the Unit for Consular Assistance provided nearly twice as much guidance compared to the previous year. In the spring, during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, personal guidance and advice were given to tens of thousands of travellers stranded abroad. Thousands of travellers were assisted in returning to Finland after air traffic ground to a sudden halt.

Erik Polus was born and spent his early childhood years in Finland, grew up in California and studied at UC Berkeley. After nearly a decade in New York’s start-up scene, he ended up in Athens to work at TaxiBeat (now Beat), which represents the field of digital businesses that is in high demand as the follow-up of the Covid outbreak. Despite much of his life in the US, he considers his practical, dry, logical, and business-first attitude to represent the Finnishness in him. During the Greek lockdown in the spring, he spent four months with his family in Finland and refreshed his Finnish language skills and mindset.

Finland is seeking membership of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in 2022–2024. The campaign slogan: ”A Diverse World, Universal Human Rights”, underscores the universal nature of human rights. The election will take place at the UN General Assembly in October 2021.