Tarja Halonen News

Finland's 92nd Independence Day Gala Reception, and present were three Presidents: the incumbent Tarja Halonen , and her two prdecessors Martti Ahtisaari and Mauno Koivisto .

Finland celebrated its 92nd Independence Day on Sunday in traditional fashion, regardless of the recession.

Minister of Defence Jyri Hakamies aimed some rather harsh criticism toward President Tarja Halonen on Thursday, accusing her of keeping him in the dark about a request from NATO for more Finnish crisis management forces to Afghanistan.

Sunday is Independence Day in Finland, this year marking the 92nd anniversary of the decision to untie the bonds with Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution.

The Finnish TV channels and largest daily newspapers tend to give little publicity to female ministers.

Matti Vanhanen , the Finnish prime minister, said Tuesday that the prime minister would represent Finland at EU summits.Citing the constitution, Mr Vanhanen added the line applied to summits with a single seat for each member state.

President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen were not able to iron out all of their differences on Friday on the capacity in which the Finnish President would participate in summit meetings of the European Union.

Finnish veterans attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument of Finnish Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim during commemorations for the 70th anniversary of the start of the Winter War when Stalin's Red Army attacked the small Nordic country, in central Helsinki, Monday, Nov.

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and President Tarja Halonen are holding discussions today, Friday, on how Finland will be represented at future summit meetings of the European Union.

Another row over the president's attendance at EU summits appeared to be picking up momentum on Thursday, with the Lisbon treaty expected to curb the number of seats at summit tables.

Finland is sending a fairly large delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next month, even though Minister of the Environment Paula Lehtomaki originally hoped that the number of delegates travelling to Copenhagen could be limited to better correspond to today's level of electronic communications.

The backroom dealing in the EU has begun in earnest. As there are only so many breakfasts, lunches, dinners and elevators available for the politicians to withdraw during an EU top, eventually a name will have to be presented, barring full-scale gridlock.

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen will pay an official visit to Vietnam on November 15-17 at the invitation of PM Nguyen Tan Dung.

On Thursday, Speaker of Parliament Sauli Niinisto did not get any support for his proposal that the President and the government ministers should be allowed to jump ahead of the queue to get their H1N1 shots.

Aside from blonde, Barbie-like women, freezing cold weather and Nokia mobile phones, there is little the general public associates with Finland.

Finland's foreign policy leaders are in no great hurry to update their assessment of how changes in Afghanistan's international crisis management will be reflected in Finland's contribution to the international effort.

This could come as a disappointment, but there are no sinister plots in the strange confusion over the additional Finnish forces sent to Afghanistan, nor is there a single guilty party.

For the past four years Syria has been begging for a partnership with the EU. Now the EU agrees, Syria says it'll think about it, Bassel Oudat reports from Damascus On 8 October, the EU said it was ready to sign a Syrian- European Partnership Agreement.

The upcoming appointments to leadership positions of the European Union dominated the summit of the leaders of EU member states in Brussels on Thursday.

European Union leaders argued on Thursday over how to split the bill for helping poor countries tackle global warming in a deal to be agreed in December in Copenhagen.