For companies that want to internationalize
The Your Europe portal provides practical information on citizen and company rights as well as possibilities in the EU. It focuses on situations of literally crossing borders – e.g. cases where a EU citizen wants to work or study in another member country or a European company wants to move its operations into another member country or open a branch in another member country.
The task of the Finnish representation office of the European Commission is to bring the commission closer to citizens by means of communications. In addition to communications, managing relations to the press and the media are a central part of the operations of the office. In addition, the representation office reports to the Commission on the political situation in Finland.
Europe Information is an EU information centre for citizens. It strives to provide answers to questions on the effects of Finland’s EU membership on the lives of citizens and on society.
The EU Research and Innovation programmes, EUTI, provide information on the Horizon Europe Programme, EUREKA/Eurostars and COST programmes as well as instruct future programme participants and coordinate the national contact person network.
What’s new? is a constantly updated information page on the Europa server. It provides the latest news from institutions and EU parties. The page is available in English.
REACH is a decree of the European Parliament and of the Council on the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restrictions of chemicals. The REACH decree obliges EU member countries to establish an advisory service to help companies meet the requirements in the REACH decree. The European Chemical Agency, ECHA, operates in Helsinki and manages issues related to REACH.
EU funding programmes
The European portal for SMEs offers information on the following themes:
EU funding for SMEs
Online support
EU representative for SMEs
SMEs and innovation
Common market in Europe
EU branch-specific operational principles
Support services around Europe
Internationalisation
SME company policy in Europe
Encouragement towards entrepreneurship
Supporting SME competitiveness
Structural funds – ESR and ERDF
In charge of Culture and training programmes of the EU, CIMO manages several EU training programmes in Finland.
Media Plus is an EU support programme for the audiovisual industry.
EU organs
The European commission makes legislative initiatives and implements statutes, the budget and programmes, in addition to monitoring the adherence to union laws and representing the EU.
EUROPA is the official portal of the European Union.
The Directorate-General (DG) for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs focuses on entrepreneurship and developing an operating environment where innovation can thrive.
The European Ombudsman investigates cases of maladministration in the EU Institutions and reports on them. European Union citizens may complain to the ombudsman.
European Parliament monitors all EU organs democratically and approves EU legislation and the budget.
The Council of the European Union is the European Union’s most important legislative organ. The Council passes laws, coordinates the economic policies of EU member countries and signs international agreements on behalf of the union, etc. National ministers from each member country meet in the council regularly.
Separate offices of the European Union
Useful databases
CORDIS contains research and development information. The Cordis database comprises nearly ten sub-databases. Information on a specific research programme is available in the Programmes database and on a specific research project in the Projects database. The Partners database can be used to search for research partners.
EuropeAid contains offer and proposal requests from the branch managing union aid to countries outside the EU.
EUR-Lex is a portal to European Union legislation. The pages contain a search engine, for e.g. foundation contracts, legislation, upcoming legislation and legal practice. Additionally, the pages contain the latest issues of the European Communities’ official journal and links to legislation databases.
Who is who in Europe is a database of the organisational and contact information and personnel search for the European Union and other organs.
The TED database contains public procurement tenders from EU countries.
SOLVIT is a web-based problem-solving network where EU member countries cooperate to find practical solutions to problems arising from authorities applying legislation pertaining to internal markets erroneously. SOLVIT handles practically all cross-border problems pertaining to the erroneous application of EU law, in which the parties are a business or citizen and a national authority. SOLVIT cannot handle problems between companies or consumers and companies.
The EUROPAGES company directory
The Market Access Database offers information on customs tariffs, customs provisions and fees all over the world. Companies may also submit complaints online and inform the European Commission of any measures restricting import or investment in the market outside the European Union.
