Fri, 18 Jul, 2014 03:48:11 AM FTimes-STT Report, July 18  Lenita Toivakka, the Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade. Photo Lehtikuva. Politicians in the ruling coalition have praised Finland’s role in sustaining its cross-border cooperation with Russia.
It was feared that the ENPI CBC (European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, Cross-Border Cooperation) programmes with Russia would be suspended by Wednesday’s extraordinary EU summit in Brussels.
A suspension of the programmes would have been detrimental to Finland which has a number of cross-border cooperation programmes with Russia. It could have seen the country lose almost 200 million euros in funding over the next seven years.
European Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Lenita Toivakka pointed out that the suspension would have more impact on individual EU countries than Russia.
Prime Minister Alexander Stubb in a press briefing on Thursday said Finland wanted to remove suspension of the cross-border cooperation programmes from the possible list of sanctions.
Professor Pekka Sutela, an expert in Russian affairs expressed surprise at how a suspension of the programmes could have had an influence on Russia’s foreign policy.
“I do not understand how blocking the access of Russian students to western universities could influence the situation in Ukraine,” remarked Sutela.
Half of the cross-border cooperation funding comes from the EU, a quarter from Russia and another quarter from Finland.
The programmes have been used to build roads and to enhance border crossing points to facilitate trade with Russia.
Finland’s cooperation with Russia has been implemented through three programmes – Kolarctic, Karelia, and southeast Finland.
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