Current affairs

“We now are in a situation where the European Union is faced with great hopes and expectations, especially in Lebanon, but also more widely in the region,” Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja stated after Cabinet meetings on the Middle East situation on 31 July. Finland as the EU Presidency has called together an extraordinary meeting of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council, to take place in Brussels on Tuesday.

The new common EU emergency and crisis coordination arrangement (CCA) that just became operational at the beginning of July ensures that political decision-making in the event of sudden and serious emergency situations is as rapid as possible, points out Finland's Permanent Representative to the European Union Eikka Kosonen. As the EU President, Finland has been widely complemented in the meetings of EU ambassadors for its meritorious coordination of EU's actions.

The participants of the International Conference for Lebanon in Rome on 26 July expressed their determination to work immediately to reach a cease-fire that would put an end to the current wave of violence and hostilities in the Middle East. They agreed that an international force in Lebabon should urgently be authorised under a UN mandate to support the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja calls the news of the death of a Finnish and other international UN observers in Lebanon