Current affairs

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Washington DC on 27–28 February.

The EU is revising its Visa Code in order to facilitate visa procedures for travellers and to respond more effectively to the challenges posed by illegal migration. Finland will start applying the new Visa Code on 2 February 2020 together with other Schengen countries.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will phase in a new visa system during February and March 2020. After its introduction, visa applications can be processed efficiently, fast and reliably.

Embassy of Finland in Washington D.C. is hosting the Mind-Building exhibition this spring and early summer. Mind-Building presents Finnish public libraries and library architecture throughout time.

One of the key objectives of Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU has been to turn the European Union into a global climate leader. The 90 diplomatic and consular missions of Finland abroad have now risen to the challenge. The missions have addressed climate change in diverse ways, ranging from ways to exercise political influence to environmentally friendly choices in everyday life.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will visit Washington, the Unites States on 3 to 4 December. During his visit, he will meet United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and other representatives of the administration. He will also visit the US Congress.

All Finnish missions abroad and organisations issuing visas, including the Border Guard, Finnish Customs and the Police, started to use the new EU visa sticker on 11 November 2019

On 14 November, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto will attend an extraordinary meeting the Foreign Ministers of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo.