MFA: Discretionary government grants for civil society organisations’ Europe information in 2021

Discretionary government grants are awarded to CSOs to help them raise awareness and knowledge of the European Union in Finland. CSOs play an important role in enhancing general knowledge and understanding of the EU and in promoting related discussion. The grants strengthen CSOs’ Europe information and improve people’s basic knowledge of matters related to the European Union and Finland’s EU membership.

The following priorities were emphasised in the application round for 2021:

• Youth in the EU
• Human rights and the rule of law
• Recovery and sustainable growth of the EU — challenges and opportunities in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic
• The EU’s global role and external relations

In the application round, particular stress was placed on aspects related to projects’ communicative elements. The projects must make their contents available to everyone free of charge. The amount of discretionary government grants per project ranged between EUR 15,000 and EUR 40,000.

By the due date, 41 CSOs had submitted applications for 49 Europe information projects. Discretionary government grants were awarded to 21 CSOs for 23 projects. The one-year funding is meant for use in disseminating information in Finland. This year, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs awarded discretionary government grants to the following CSOs:

Pro Ethical Trade Finland (Eetti)

European Movement in Finland

Women in Europe

JEF Finland

European Youth Parliament Finland

Finnwatch

Kansan Radioliitto

Finnish Association of the Deaf

Youth Academy

Pirkan Helmi

Peace Education Institute

SaferGlobe Finland

SOSTE, Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health

Finnish Development NGOs – Fingo

Caritas Finland

Finnish Youth Cooperation Allianssi

Union of Students in Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences - SAMOK

Finnish YouTube content creators

UN Association of Finland

TIEKE Finnish Information Society Development Centre

Finnish Foundation for Media and Development (Vikes)

Inquiries: Sara Haalahti, Communications Officer, + 358 295 350 089. The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are in the format firstname.lastname@formin.fi.