Foreign Ministry's press releases

On 21 December, the Government decided to propose the appointment of Counsellor for Foreign Affairs Hannu Himanen as Head of the Finnish Embassy in Moscow from 1 May 2012.

Finland will introduce biometric residence permit cards at the beginning of 2012. They will replace the residence permit stickers for travel documents.

The Embassy of Finland in Damascus has temporarily halted the processing of entry applications as of 11 December. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has also decided to cancel the opportunity for advance voting in the presidential election in the Embassy of Damascus.

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will visit Riga, Latvia on Tuesday 20 December.

A study conducted by the Lappea Research Institute of the University of Lapland notes that foreign berry-pickers will be needed in Finland in the future, too, but improving the berry-pickers’ position requires clearer rules.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja presented the Action Plan for Mediation in Helsinki on 14 December. The action plan was prepared by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in line with the Government Programme.

Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb will participates in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on 16 December. This is the eighth regular WTO Ministerial Conference. The previous one was held in 2009.

In accordance with the Government Programme, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has compiled action plans for the United States and Canada, which were made public on 7 December. According to Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, who presented the action plans, the preparation process in itself was useful in bringing together actors from different areas of Finnish society. The cooperation resulted in a wide range of objectives, the implementation of which the MFA will monitor.

Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb and a business delegation chaired by him will visit Chelyabinsk and Ufa, Russia, on 11-14 December. The business delegation chaired by Stubb and assembled by the Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce will include representatives from more than 20 Finnish companies and organisations.

Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü of the OPCW will visit Finland, at the invitation of Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, on 7–8 December. Items on the agenda for discussion with Minister Tuomioja are a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East and Finland’s role in preparing the conference to promote this zone, as well as topical challenges facing the OPCW’s activities and Finland’s support for the OPCW and its Member States.