Foreign Ministry's press releases

On Friday 24 April, the President of the Republic accepted the association agreements concluded between the EU and its Member States and Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. The agreements deepen the countries' political and economic cooperation with the EU and its Member States.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja will participate in the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Iqaluit, in the Canadian North, on 24 April. The meeting will approve action plans concerning the prevention of and response to Arctic marine oil pollution and the reduction of black carbon and methane emissions.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, on Tuesday, 21 April, selected Pauliine Koskelo to be a judge at the European Court of Human Rights.

Under-Secretary of State for External Economic Relations Matti Anttonen will lead a Team Finland trade mission to Belarus from 22 to 24 April 2015.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja will participate in the book launch event of the history of the Embassy of Finland in Tallinn, Kohtu 4, on 22 April. Tuomioja will open the event to be held at the Embassy in Tallinn. The launch event will be attended by the Estonian Minister of Defence Sven Mikser, too.

Finland granted EUR 900,000 on 17 April in humanitarian aid to the victims of the conflicts in Libya and Yemen. The support will be channelled to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) through the Finnish Red Cross; EUR 400,000 of the support will be directed to Libya and EUR 500,000 to Yemen. The support will be granted from Finland's development cooperation appropriations earmarked for humanitarian aid purposes.

The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) will enter into force on 1 August 2015 in Finland.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council will convene in Luxembourg on 20 April. Finland's representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja.

International tax avoidance and profit shifting undermine developing countries’ preconditions to increase their own funding. At the same time they cause major losses of tax revenue in industrial countries. The G20 and the EU have made tax issues a political priority. The UN stresses tax issues in negotiations on the financing of new sustainable development goals. Common problems call for solutions benefiting all parties.

A development policy programme that changes with each Government’s term of office does not serve long-term development objectives and does not provide adequate steering for their attainment, the Development Policy Committee concludes. The Committee recommends that the main objectives and operating principles of development policy be stabilised at a level more permanent than changing policy programmes, such as through an Act on development cooperation.