MFA: Discretionary government transfers granted for CSOs’ Europe information in 2019

Discretionary government transfers are granted to CSOs to help them raise awareness of the European Union in Finland. CSOs play an important role in increasing knowledge and understanding of these matters and in promoting related discussion. The transfers strengthen CSOs’ Europe information and improve the citizens’ basic knowledge of matters related to the European Union and Finland’s membership of the EU.

The focus areas in the call for proposals for 2019 were the effects of the EU’s activities on Finland and on the security of Finnish nationals, the EU’s ability to combat influencing through information, the impacts of Brexit, the EU budget and Finland, the EU’s Arctic policy, and opportunities for youth in the EU.

In the call for proposals, emphasis was laid on the different aspects of communications, such as use of multiple channels, effectiveness of communications and as wide dissemination and availability of the produced materials as possible to the general public in particular. The contents produced by projects must be available to everyone free of charge. The one-year transfer is meant for the dissemination of information in Finland.

A separate EUR 100,000 appropriation was made available in 2019 for national information activities around the European elections. A central objective is to ensure that people in Finland have access to reliable information on the European Union and, consequently, to improve voter turnout in the European elections in spring 2019 especially among young people.

By the due date, 36 CSOs had applied for support for 44 Europe information projects. Discretionary government transfers were granted to 21 CSOs for 23 projects.

Two CSOs applied for support for two different projects concerning information activities related to the European elections. Based on the project applications, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs granted discretionary government transfers to the following CSOs:

Discretionary government transfers for CSOs’ Europe information

• Avoin yhteiskunta ry
• European Movement in Finland
• Women in Europe
• JEF Finland
• European Youth Parliament Finland
• Kansan Radioliitto
• Finnish Association of the Deaf
• Union for Rural Culture and Education
• Youth Academy
• Peace Education Institute
• Safer Globe ry
• Schuman Society in Finland
• Sosialidemokraattiset Opiskelijat SONK ry
• Finnish Youth Co-operation Allianssi
• University of Applied Sciences Students in Finland - SAMOK
• Peace Union of Finland
• UN Association of Finland
• Turun lähiradioyhdistys ry
• Valo-Valmennus yhdistys ry
• Finnish Foundation for Media and Development (VIKES)
• Green Cultural Association

Discretionary government transfers for CSOs’ information activities relating to the European elections

• European Movement in Finland

Inquiries: Sara Haalahti, Communications Officer, tel. +358 295 350 089, and Ville Cantell, Director of Unit, tel. +358 295 351 847

The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are in the format firstname.lastname@formin.fi.