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Finland in the Mediterranean
[journal article]
Abstract This article aimes to shed light on the rich, but rather enigmatic relationship between Finland and the Mediterranean world. These interactions have been approached since Antiquity, but this paper’s focus has been on 19th and 20th centuries and especially on the last three decades. About thirty year... view more
This article aimes to shed light on the rich, but rather enigmatic relationship between Finland and the Mediterranean world. These interactions have been approached since Antiquity, but this paper’s focus has been on 19th and 20th centuries and especially on the last three decades. About thirty years ago, when Finland was preparing itself to join the European Union, it also had to build up a real Mediterranean policy of its own. It was in the Corfu European Council in June 1994 when the then-president realised that the country needed such a policy. Thus, in 1995, when Finlandjoined the EU, it also participated in the Barcelona Euro-Mediterranean Conference and signed the Barcelona Declaration that established the Barcelona Process forming the structures for European Union cooperation with the southern and eastern Mediterranean countries. The participation into this structural process was felt important for Finland mainly for two reasons. Firstly, the country wanted to be a full and active member of the EU and thus contribute to every field of activity that are important for the union. Secondly, we Finns realised that if we wanted the southern European countries to understand and to cooperate with our own ambitions in the northern part of Europe, we needed to show solidarity towards the aims and needs of our southern partners in the Mediterranean. All this resulted in Finland being surprisingly active in all Euro-Mediterranean cooperation environments. This concerned not only official state activities, but also other public sectors as well as civil society actors and NGOs. These Euro-Mediterranean activities became so many and so multiform that we can deal only with a few of them here as examples.... view less
Keywords
Finland; Mediterranean region; Middle East; EU; international relations; cultural relations; foreign policy; security policy; cooperation; historical development
Classification
General History
International Relations, International Politics, Foreign Affairs, Development Policy
Free Keywords
Union for Mediterranean
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
Page/Pages
p. 129-147
Journal
Studia Europejskie - Studies in European Affairs, 26 (2022) 4
ISSN
1428-149X
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed
Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0