Prime Minister Orpo to represent Finland at Granada meetings
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo will represent Finland at two meetings hosted by the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 October in Granada, Spain. An extraordinary meeting of the European Council will be held on Friday. It will be preceded on Thursday by the third meeting of the European Political Community, which will bring together the heads of state or government of the EU Member States and 20 other European countries.
The third meeting of the European Political Community will explore ways to make Europe more resilient, prosperous and geostrategic. The meeting will begin with a plenary session followed by group discussions on various topics. Prime Minister Orpo will take part in the discussion on multilateralism and security. Finland’s key objective at the meeting is to strengthen European support to Ukraine while maintaining diplomatic pressure on Russia. Russia and Belarus have not been invited to the meeting.
The informal meeting of the European Council will begin with a discussion on the future of the EU. The EU leaders are expected to adopt the EU Strategic Agenda for 2024–2029 after the European Parliament elections next June. Items on the agenda for the Granada meeting include European defence and ways to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has proven the need to strengthen Europe’s defence capability and defence industry, resilience, common foreign and security policy and strategic competitiveness. Finland can offer solid expertise for this work in areas such as security of supply, comprehensive national defence, hybrid and cyber capabilities and the defence industry,” says Prime Minister Orpo.
Inquiries: Jori Arvonen, State Under-Secretary for European Affairs, tel. +358 295 16001, Tuomas Tikkanen, Special Adviser (EU Affairs), tel. +358 40 523 5768 and Anne Sjöholm, Head of Communications for EU Affairs, tel. +358 40 537 0733, Prime Minister’s Office
Informal meeting of the European Council
Meeting of the European Political Community | europa.eu