Foreign Minister Tuomioja will travel to Estonia to attend a Northern Dimension conference
Press release 171/2006
5 June, 2006
Foreign Minister Tuomioja will travel to Tallinn, Estonia, on 9 June to attend a Northern Dimension conference. The conference, "The renewed Northern Dimension: A tool for enhanced regional and cross-border cooperation", will be organised in cooperation between the Finnish and Estonian Foreign Ministries and the European Commission Representation in Estonia.
The objective of the conference is to ponder how regional cross-border cooperation could be enhanced and promoted. The Conference introduces the new renewed concept of the Northern Dimension and distributes information about what has been achieved through the Northern Dimension to date and about the opportunities it offers. The Northern Dimension is one of the main topics on the foreign policy agenda for Finland's EU Presidency.
The conference will be hosted by the Foreign Ministers of Finland and Estonia Erkki Tuomioja and Urmas Paet. In addition to them, the other speakers in the conference will include other ministers from the Northern Dimension region, experts in the field, and European Commission representatives.
The conference will be attended by representatives from the parliaments, ministries, local administration, business life and other social sectors from Estonia and the neighbouring countries. A more detailed conference programme has been published on the website of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at www.vm.ee.
Foreign Minister Tuomioja will also have bilateral talks with Foreign Minister of Estonia Urmas Paet in Tallinn. From Tallinn, Tuomioja will continue to Valga, on the Estonian and Latvian border, where, on the Latvian side of the border, he will have a bilateral meeting with Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks on the evening of 9 June.
In their bilateral talks the Foreign Ministers intend to go through the topical issues related to Finland's preparations for the EU Presidency and other international questions of current interest.
Tuomioja will also attend the Hella Wuolijoki seminar, to be held in Valga on Saturday 10 June, as chairman of the seminar.