Activities in 2024

Awards, care services, nature walk, Christmas lunch – many firsts in 2024

HONORARY MEMBERS AND EU AWARDS

In 2024 AIACE Finland turned 15. To celebrate the event, AIACE Finland invited Elisabeth Helander and Aino Salomäki as honorary members at its general assembly. We were honoured by the online attendance of Dominique Deshayes, President of AIACE International. She congratulated the Finnish Section for 
its work during the years and thanked Elisabeth and Aino for their work for AIACE International. To raise awareness of the EU, the general assembly also decided to grant recognition awards to outstanding master’s theses on EU-related topics.

In January 2025, two students at the Universities of Tampere and Turku received €1000 each for their outstanding master’s theses on the EU’s Migration and Asylum Convention and 
the Sustainability Reporting Directive. An honourable mention was granted to a thesis on the EU sanctions regime. 

Tapani Piha, President of AIACE Finland, stressed the importance of teaching and research on EU policy, as they contribute to shaping the future EU policies and to EU career opportunities. A long-time Finnish MEP Nils Torvalds spoke about the EU’s future and stressed the importance of Nordic cooperation in developing the EU amidst the problems of large Member States.

CARE, NATURE AND MUSIC

In 2024 AIACE Finland also organised the first ever seminar on care services for the elderly and JSIS support, in cooperation with PMO and HR. The association’s members are relatively young, and care has not yet been a prominent issue. This will change when the members age. After an overview of services 
for older people in Finland the event continued with PMO’s presentation on the modalities of JSIS support for care and reimbursement conditions. DG HR explained their social services provided to pensioners. The event was attended by 69 members and relatives onsite and 135 (sic!) remotely, the highest number of participants ever.

IACE Finland organised also its first ever nature and hiking trip. The excursion, led by a wilderness guide, took place in Liesjärvi National Park. After the hike, the participants tasted spruce buds, spruce bud syrup and deer roast over a campfire coffee. They also learned how to carve feather sticks and how to light a campfire without matches. A topical subject as Europe prepares for crises! The tour in sunny weather ended with a visit to a traditional farm.

The Rubato brass band, composed of former EU officials, held several popular public concerts. The orchestra’s 10th anniversary concert attracted a full house of 150 music lovers, who enjoyed old and newer jazz and evergreen hits. As a surprise, the former Commissioner Erkki Liikanen sang an iconic Finnish tango “Fairyland”.

EUROPIRATION

Inspired by the Danish Association, AIACE Finland organised a Christmas lunch instead of a dinner. The new concept attracted especially new members. The meal was accompanied by a Christmas song singalong, a quiz, and an AI-assisted greeting from President Emmanuel Macron. ‘President Macron’ spoke about Finland as the land of Santa Claus and reindeer, but also about the desperate lack of snow in the Alps. The snow-covered Lapland, he said, offers an ideal setting for healthy ageing. He also regretted that the PMO has decided to abandon SMS-based authentication to the JSIS system.–The audience was amused by the video.

France was also a topic of discussion at the annual meeting where Helena Petäistö, a journalist based in France, gave a presentation on France and the EU. The European inspiration 
was enhanced during the trips to Galicia, Oslo and Kraków.

RAPID GROWTH OF THE MEMBERSHIP

The rapidly growing number of members of AIACE Finland has taken the association by surprise. In February 2025 there were already 425 members, an increase of 178 since 2020 (+72%). 

In the last four years, the number of new members has been almost as high as the number of EU retirees settling in Finland (189). The flipside of this dramatic increase is that the number of Finns in the institutions is rapidly decreasing, as only a handful of new entrants join each year. 

This was one of the reasons for AIACE Finland to recognise outstanding master’s theses on EU topics: to inspire students about EU issues and to awaken universities to the importance of EU teaching and research.