Current affairs

New Ambassadors and Consuls General to Beijing, Copenhagen, Ljubljana, OECD Mission, Dublin, Vienna, Bern, Paris, Canton, Hamburg and Las Palmas.

The Lisbon Treaty, Finland’s chairmanship of the OSCE, Georgia, relations between the EU and Russia, meetings with the press. These were events on Foreign Minister Stubb’s agenda during his visit to Dublin on 19 November. The Minister had a working lunch with his Irish colleague Micheal Martin, talked at a session of the Sub-Committee on Ireland’s Future in the European Union, and gave a presentation together with Martin to students at University College Dublin.

European Parliament awarded its Prize for Journalism to a young Irish journalist Angela Steen. Ms Angela Steen (Ireland) was one of the participants in the 16th Foreign Correspondents' Programme, organized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in 2007.

The knowledge and skills of Finnish students in science, mathematics and reading are of the highest order. In science and mathematics they are rated best in the OECD countries and in reading the second best. The main focus in PISA 2006 was science literacy.