Draft budget of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for 2008
Press release 179/2007
13 September, 2007
The draft budget for 2008 proposes that a total of 1,095.7 million euros be granted for the administrative branch of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This is 1.7 million less than the assigned spending limits.
In the draft budget of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for 2008, the principal objectives for social effectiveness correspond to goals set in the Strategy for the administrative branch. For 2008, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has renewed the structure and grounds of its draft budget.
A total of 191.1 million euros is proposed for the operating expenses of the foreign service. During 2008 the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will handle the chairmanship of the OSCE. Implementation of the Foreign Service Productivity Programme will be continued, the goal being to achieve a reduction of 17 posts in 2008. In line with this programme, implementation of the shared service centre project for the administrative branch will proceed in cooperation with the service centre selected.
A total of 830.4 million euros is proposed for international development cooperation, which corresponds to approximately 0.44% of gross national income. A total of EUR 682.8 million is proposed for class 30, international development cooperation, under the main title of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The sum of 667.8 million euros is proposed for regular development cooperation in item 24.30.66.
Of the development cooperation appropriations, 2.4 million euros have been transferred to the appropriations for operating expenses, to be used to cover the expenses arising from the administration of development cooperation. The sum of 15 million euros is presented to raise the capital of Finnfund, the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd. The appropriation for that item has been transferred from the item for international development cooperation.
In accordance with the assigned spending limits, the sum of 20.5 million euros is proposed for neighbouring area cooperation.
The amount proposed for the maintenance of Finnish crisis management troops is 56.4 million euros, and 14.1 million euros is proposed for the participation of civilian personnel in crisis management tasks. It is estimated that the number of staff hired for military and civilian crisis management operations will correspond to about 1,100 person-years in 2008.
An appropriation of 6.7 million euros is proposed for handling the chairmanship of the OSCE in 2008.
A total of 1.5 million euros is proposed for item 24.99.50, certain state aid grants. The proposal exceeds the assigned spending limits by 200,000 euros; this is caused by the inclusion of a general aid grant to Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) in the draft proposal.
The draft budget proposes 95.9 million euros for item 24.99.66, which is reserved for membership fees and financing contributions.
Additional information: Mikko Patosuo, Financial Planning Manager, Administrative Unit, , tel. +358 9 1605 5870; with regard to development cooperation: Sinikka Antila, Head of the Unit for General Development Policy and Planning, tel. +358 9 1605 6283; and with regard to neighbouring area cooperation: Minni Hyrkkänen, Senior Officer, Unit of Cooperation with Neighbouring Areas, tel. +358 9 1605 5610.