Govt cuts funding to peace organisations

The four-party alliance government led by Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP) has decided to stop grants for peace work from the next year, said the Peace Union of Finland, an umbrella organisation for 16 Finnish associations working for peace, in a press release on Friday.

The government informed the union about the decision on Friday morning, said Laura Lodenius, Executive Director of the Peace Union of Finland in the press release.

The government took the decision as a part of its austerity measures announced on April 16.

The Peace Union expressed concern over the decision and said that the government took the decision as a move to weaken the operating conditions of civil society in Finland.

The Union also said that the operating conditions of peace movement have also been weakened in the new NATO country Sweden and abolished completely in Russia, Belarus and Hungary.