Present time

In Finland the upheaval in great power politics that took place at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s - the end of the division of Europe, the collapse of the communist system and the dissolution of the Soviet Union - was evident in both a liberalized intellectual atmosphere and in greater latitude in foreign policy. Finland became a full member of EFTA in 1986 and finally a member of the Council of Europe in 1989. In September 1990 the government issued a declaration in which it stated that the limitations on Finnish sovereignty in the Treaty of Paris (1947) concerning men in arms and amounts of war materiel had become obsolete.

Finland submitted its own application to the EC in March 1992 and the Parliament of the EC (by then the European Union), approved the application in May 1994. In a referendum held in Finland in October 1994, 57% of the voters supported membership and in November 1994 Parliament approved Finnish EU membership as of the beginning of 1995 by a vote of 152-45. In 1994 a new system of direct presidential elections was applied. None of the candidates gained an absolute majority in the first round and the second round in February pitted Martti Ahtisaari, secretary of state at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, against Elisabeth Rehn, Minister of Defence. Martti Ahtisaari was elected the tenth president of the Republic of Finland with 54 per cent of the votes. In February 2000 Tarja Halonen (Social Democrat) became the first woman to be elected President of Finland. (Zetterberg, 1999)

Important dates in the history of Finland

Finnish modern house in old style and color.