President Halonen visiting Hamburg: theme the Baltic

Office of the President of the Republic of Finland Press Release 5 May 2008

President of the Republic Tarja Halonen and Dr. Pentti Arajärvi will visit Hamburg in Germany on 8-9 May 2008. The visit will coincide with Hamburg’s major annual event, the Hafensgeburtstag harbour festival, at which President Halonen will be the guest of honour.

On Thursday 8 May President Halonen will address the Übersee Klub in Hamburg on the theme “Our shared Baltic Sea region – challenges of the future”. The Übersee Klub is a prestigious forum for discussion of economic, political, scientific and cultural themes. President Kekkonen spoke there in 1979 on Finland as a European country, whilst the title of President Martti Ahtisaari’s speech there in 1998 was “Europe must reform itself”.

The Hafensgeburtstag is said to be the world’s biggest harbour festival. President Halonen will open an associated Finland-related programme totality on Friday 9 May. The festival’s partner country this year is Finland.

The Finnish minelayer Pohjanmaa will lead a parade of ships at the opening of the festival. In conjunction with the festival, many Finnish regions and companies will present themselves both at public events and at a corporate seminar for the port and logistics sector.

The festival is arranged each year to commemorate the granting by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa in 1189 of a charter that allowed Hamburg to function as a port.

The programme for President Halonen’s visit also includes a meeting with First Mayor Ole von Beust of Hamburg, a visit to the Finnish Seamen’s Church as well as an address to a meeting of the German-Finnish Chamber of Commerce.

President Halonen and Dr. Arajärvi will return to Finland on Friday 9 May.