Skip to content
Media
Valtioneuvosto frontpage

Official Finnish name of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs changes

Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Publication date 5.10.2017 13.40 | Published in English on 5.10.2017 at 14.00
Press release

Press release 171/2017
5 October 2017

The official Finnish name of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will change to ‘ulkoministeriö’. Goverment proposes that the act on the change of official name will enter into force on 1 January 2018. The Ministry will keep the Swedish (utrikesministeriet) and English (Ministry for Foreign Affairs) equivalents of its name unchanged.

The shorter name ‘ulkoministeriö’ has been used in the Ministry’s communications and in the media for years. The new name recognises the change in usage. One of the factors behind this change is harmonisation of Finnish ministries’ names. The Ministry of the Interior adopted its current name in 2013.

The Finnish name will show in the Ministry’s forms and other printed matter. The Ministry’s new visual image and logo will be published in early 2018.

The decree on the establishment of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Senate was issued in June 1918. The actual date also marks the official day when the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland was established. The Foreign Affairs Department has been called the Ministry for Foreign Affairs since November 1918, when a decree was issued on the Senate becoming the Government of Finland.

Inquiries: Johanna Kotkajärvi, Deputy Director General, tel. + 358 295 351 351 and Eeva Winter, Legal Officer, tel. +358 295 350 739.

The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are in the format [email protected].

 
Back to top