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5.3.2026 | March 2026 1 Finland simplification proposals Contents 1. Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) (EU) 2023/1791 ................................................. 3 2. Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) (EU) 2022/2577 ....................................

20.5.2025 | The World Health Organization (WHO) is holding its 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva on 19–27 May. The Finnish delegation to the Assembly is led by Minister of Social Security Sanni Grahn-Laasonen. The Assembly adopted the new WHO Pandemic Agreement on 20 May.

3.2.2023 | The EU General Affairs Council (GAC) will meet in Brussels on Monday 6 February. The meeting will focus on preparations for the February Special European Council. The GAC will also discuss relations between the EU and the United Kingdom and receive an overview of Sweden’s priorities for its Presidency of the Council of the EU. Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering Tytti Tuppurainen will represent Finland at the meeting.

20.5.2024 | The EU General Affairs Council (GAC) will meet on Tuesday 21 May in Brussels. In the meeting, the GAC will start preparations for the June European Council, continue the EU’s annual rule of law dialogue and take stock of the rule of law situation in Poland. Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering Anders Adlercreutz will represent Finland at the meeting.

25.3.2022 | Transatlantic cooperation has been close since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This work will continue in close coordination, said the leaders of the EU Member States and United States President Joe Biden at their meeting in Brussels. President Biden joined the European Council for the first day of its meeting on Thursday 24 March. The EU leaders also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who joined the meeting via videoconference.

13.4.2022 | On Wednesday 13 April, Minister for European Affairs Tytti Tuppurainen travelled to Dublin, where she met with her colleague, Irish Minister for European Affairs Thomas Byrne, and attended a local meeting of heads of mission. The ministers’ discussions highlighted Europe’s support for Ukraine and the importance of the rule of law for the European Union.

21.10.2022 | At their meeting in Brussels, the EU leaders strongly condemned Russia’s war of aggression and expressed their strong support for Ukraine. The second day of the European Council meeting began with a strategic discussion on China.

15.2.2024 | On 15 February 2024, the Government submitted a proposal to transpose the amendments required by the EU Blue Card Directive into Finnish legislation. The amendments will apply to non-EU nationals arriving in Finland with a EU residence permit for highly qualified workers, also known as the Blue Card.

29.12.2022 | On 29 December 2022, the President of the Republic approved the Act on the National Implementation of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve. Funds from the Reserve will be used to support companies that have been negatively affected by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The support is channelled as business development aid from the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centres). 

24.6.2022 | On 23 June, the European Council discussed the membership applications from Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia and the support for Ukraine and held a strategic discussion on the EU’s relations with its partners in Europe and the Western Balkans.

23.6.2023 | The European Union introduces significant new instruments in its eleventh package of restrictive measures against Russia to prevent circumvention and evasion of sanctions, particularly through third countries. These instruments include several facilities for targeting sanctions against parties that circumvent sanctions and assist in such circumvention. Export bans, bans on transit through Russia and individual sanctions lists are expanded.

23.3.2021 | The main topic of the informal video conference of the European affairs ministers on 23 March were the preparations for the video conference of the members of the European Council, to take place on 25–26 March 2021. The ministers also had a debate on the European Semester for economic policy coordination, and they were briefed on the ongoing preparations for the Conference on the Future of Euro...

23.8.2021 | Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering Tytti Tuppurainen's speech in the Annual Meeting of Heads of Mission on the 23rd of August 2021.

22.2.2022 | Birgitta Vuorinen joined the Finnish Embassy in London in early January as a senior specialist in higher education and science policy. She relocated to London from the Ministry of Education and Culture, where she worked as Director of the Division for Higher Education Policy. The UK thus became the ninth area of expertise for the Team Finland Knowledge network. Vuorinen’s task is to follow higher educat...

21.5.2024 | Unofficial translation Government proposal to Parliament for an Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration MAIN CONTENTS OF PROPOSAL The Government proposes that an act on temporary measures to combat instrumentalised migration...

23.8.2021 | Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering Tytti Tuppurainen's speech in the Annual Meeting of Heads of Mission on the 23rd of August 2021.

16.10.2024 | In their first-ever summit in Brussels on Wednesday 16 October, the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) outlined a vision for closer cooperation. For Finland, it was important that the joint statement issued at the summit condemn Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

25.4.2024 | At the Ministerial Meeting of the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission in Riga, Latvia on 25 April, the Parties to HELCOM, Russia excluded, sent a strong message on how important it is to continue the cooperation on the Baltic Sea. “The difficult geopolitical situation must not prevent us from working for the benefit of the marine environment. The protection of the Baltic Sea cannot wait for the war to end,” Minister of Climate and the Environment Kai Mykkänen says.

1.3.2023 | The EU ministers responsible for competitiveness will discuss the internal market and ways to improve the Union’s competitiveness. Ministers will seek to adopt general approaches on a proposed directive concerning distance marketing of financial services and on a proposed regulation on short-term accommodation rental services.

10.11.2022 | In September 2022, the European Commission proposed regulation that would ban products made with forced labour. While the Government supports the proposal’s objective, certain points need to be considered during the negotiations.