Finland Times

Finland’s support to Ukraine in 2014 will total 6.4 million euros. In addition, Finland has dispatched, among others, OSCE observers, border control experts and election observers, as well as anti-corruption and administrative reform experts, to Ukraine.

At the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) held in Basel on 4–5 December, Finland announced additional support of 500,000 euros for the activities of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. Finland thus rises to become one of the largest contributors to the mission with a total input of 2 million euros and 19 observers.

Further, Finland is the largest participant in the OSCE border observer mission: four out of sixteen observers are Finnish. For OSCE election missions, Finland sent 24 observers for both the presidential elections and the parliamentary elections.

Finland has also granted 60,000 euros for the activities of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Ukraine.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs on 10 December 2014 decided to grant a total of one million euros in additional support for the multilateral stability and sustainable growth fund of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

This increases Finland’s overall support to the fund to 1.5 million euros. The fund was established in July 2014 to support the Ukrainian administrative and economic reforms.

Finland has granted a total of one million euros in humanitarian assistance for Ukraine in 2014. Half of this assistance has been channelled through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the other half through the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. The assistance is used to support civilians suffering from the conflict in East Ukraine. Over 900,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.

Furthermore, Finland is involved in a number of international projects and partnerships providing support of longer duration to Ukraine.