Finland and Estonia Facts

OFFICIAL NAME OF THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL.
The Republic of Finland, is
a Nordic country situated in
northern Europe. It is bordered
by Sweden to the
west, Norway to the north
and Russia to the east,
while Estonia lies to the south
across the Gulf of Finland.

FLAG OF FINLAND
The flag of Finland , dates from the beginning of the
20th century. On a white background, it features a
blue Nordic cross, which represents Christianity.
The first known "Flag of Finland" was presented in 1848

COAT OF ARMS OF
FINLAND
The coat of arms of Finland is a crowned lion on a red field,
the right forepaw replaced with an armoured hand
brandishing a sword, trampling on a saber with the
hindpaws. The coat of arms was originally created around
the year 1580.
The original design first appeared in the 1580's on the
monument of Gustav Vasa in Uppsala cathedral.

CURRENCY OF FINLAND
Finland introduced the currency of the Eurozone,
the euro, in 2002.

ANTHEM OF FINLAND
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKRvD5i44Ko

TOTAL AREA AND POPULATION OF THE COUNTRY
Finland has a total area of 338,145 sq km.Of that
total area 303,815 sq km is land and 34,330 sq
km is water
Finland has a total
population of 5,401,267
inhabitants. It has a
density of 17 inhabitants
per sq km
https://www.google.es/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:FIN&dl=es&hl=es&q=poblacion%20de%20finla

FORM OF GOVERNMENT
The Finnish system is fundamentally
semiparliamentary, although the President has
some remarkable powers. The executive core
rests on the State Council, headed by the Prime
Minister, elected by Parliament.

NATIONAL COALITION PARTY
The National Coalition Party is a liberal conservative political
party in Finland founded in 1918.
The National Coalition Party is one of the four largest parties
in Finland, along with the Social Democratic Party, The
Finns Party and the Centre Party. The party bases its
politics on "individual freedom and responsibility, equality,
Western democracy and economic system, humane
principles and caring." The party is strongly pro-
European and is a member of the European People's Party

Sauli Väinämö Niinistö is the 12th and
current President of Finland, in office
since 2012. A lawyer by education,
Niinistö was Minister of Finance from
1996 to 2003 and the National Coalition
Party candidate in the 2006 presidential
election. He served as the Speaker of
the Parliament of Finland from 2007 to
2011 and has been the Honorary
President of the European People's

Jyrki Tapani Katainen is
the Prime Minister of
Finland and the chairman
of the National Coalition
Party.
Logo of the Prime Minister

Eero Olavi Heinäluoma is the
current Speaker of the
Parliament of Finland. A
former chairman of the
Finnish Social Democratic
Party, he was replaced in the
party's leadership by Jutta
Urpilainen in June 2008.
Heinäluoma was elected
Chairman in June 2005,
succeeding former Prime
Minister Paavo Lipponen. He
was the Minister of Finance

BRANCHES OF THE GOVERMENT
Executive branch: Finland has a parliamentary system. Most
executive power lies in the cabinet headed by the prime
minister.
President : Elected for a six-year term
Council of State :The Council of State is made up of the prime
minister and ministers for the various departments of the
central government. Ministers are not obliged to be
members of the Eduskunta (parliament) and need not be
formally identified with any political party.

Judicial branch: Under the Constitution of Finland, everyone is entitled to
have their case heard by a court or an authority appropriately and without
undue delay. This is achieved through the judicial system of Finland.
The Finnish judicial system consists of
the independent courts of law and administrative courts
the prosecution service
the enforcement authorities, who see to the enforcement of
judgments
the prison service and the probation service, who see to the
enforcement of custodial sentences, and
the Bar Association and the other avenues of legal aid.

Legislative power: is vested in the Parliament of Finland, and
the government has limited rights to amend or extend
legislation. The president has the power of veto over
parliamentary decisions although it can be overrun by the
parliament.

TERRITORIAL ORGANISATION OF FINLAND
Finland is divided into:
19 regions.
the regions are divided into 70 sub-regions.
the sub-regions are divided into 320 municipalities.

LANGUAGE/S SPOKEN
Finnish and Swedish are the official languages of
Finland. Finnish predominates nationwide while
Swedish is spoken in some coastal areas in the
west and south and in the autonomous region
of Åland. The Sami language is an official language
in northern Lapland. Also Finnish
Romani and Finnish Sign Language are recognized
in the constitution. The Nordic languages
and Karelian are also specially treated in some
contexts.
The native language of 90% of the population is
Finnish, which is part of the Finnic subgroup of
the Uralic languages.

HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY IN THE LAST 30 YEARS.
The USSR attacked Finland on Nov. 30, 1939, after Finland
refused to give in to Soviet territorial demands. The
Finns staged a strong defense for three months before
being forced to cede to the Soviets 16,000 sq mi.
Under German pressure, the Finns joined the Nazis
against Russia in 1941, but they were defeated again
and forced to cede the Petsamo area to the USSR.
In 1948, a treaty of friendship and mutual assistance was
signed by the two nations. Finland continued to pursue
a foreign policy of nonalignment throughout the cold-
war era.

HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY IN THE LAST 30 YEARS
To revitalize the economy, Martti Ahtisaari, a Social Democrat,
won the country's first direct presidential election in a
runoff in Feb. 1994.
Previously, presidents had been chosen by electors.
Finland became a member of the European Union in Jan.
1995.
On Jan. 1, 1999, Finland, along with ten other European
countries, adopted the euro as its currency.
In 2000, Tarja Halonen, who had been Finland's foreign
minister, became its first woman president.

HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY IN THE LAST 30
YEARS
Since 1998, Finland was judged to be the world's least corrupt
country
In April 2003, Finland appointed its first female prime minister,
making it the only country in Europe with both a female
president and prime minister. But Prime Minister
Jaatteenmaki resigned after only two months in office when it
was revealed that she had used leaked classified information
against her rival in the election.
In June, Defense Minister Matti Vanhanen was selected by
parliament to replace her. In Jan. 2006, President Halonen was
reelected. Vanhanen's Centre Party narrowly won
parliamentary elections in March 2007, and he was reelected
to a second term.

ECONOMIC SECTORS AND IMPORTANCE.
The largest sector of the economy is services at 66%,
followed by manufacturing and refining at 31%. Primary
production is 2.9%. With respect to foreign trade, the key
economic sector is manufacturing. The largest industries
are electronics (22%), machinery, vehicles and other
engineered metal products (21.1%), forest industry (13%)
and chemicals (11%).
GPD growth of Finland

DATE OF INCORPORATION TO THE EUROPEAN UNION.
It incorporates to the EU in Jan. 1995

OFFICIAL NAME OF THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL
Estonia officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in
the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered
to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by
the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, and to the
east by Lake Peipus and Russia (338.6 km). Across
the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west
and Finland in the north.

FLAG OF ESTONIA
The Estonian flag was officially adopted on May 8, 1990.
The color blue represents loyalty, and the country's
beautiful blue skies, seas and lakes; black is symbolic of
past oppression and the fertile soil, and white represents
virtue, winter snows, and Estonia's long struggle for
freedom and independence.

COAT OF ARMS OF ESTONIA
Estonia's coat of arms is a golden shield, surrounded by oak
branches, with three blue lions stacked on top of each other.
The first of the three lions symbolizes the courage in the fight for
freedom during ancient times, the second for courage in the
uprisings in Harjumaa, and the third for courage in the fight for
freedom during modern times. The oak branches represent
perseverance and strength.

CURRENCY OF ESTONIA
The currency of Estonia is the Euro

ANTHEM OF ESTONIA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZmJDmPGBdI

Estonia has a total
density of 29
inhabitants per sq km
https://www.google.es/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:EST&dl=es&hl=es&q=poblacion%20estonia
The total area of Estonia is 45,228 sq km.of that total
area 42,338 is land and 2,480 is water.

FORM OF GOVERNMENT
Estonia is a parliamentary representative
democratic republic in which the Prime Minister
of Estonia is the head of government and which
includes a multi-party system.

ESTONIAN REFORM PARTY
The Estonian Reform Party is a liberal pro-free
market political party in Estonia. The party is led by
current Prime Minister of Estonia Andrus Ansip, and
has 33 members in the 101-member Riigikogu,
making it the largest party in the legislature. The
Reform Party has participated in the government of
Estonia for all but three years since its foundation in
1994.
The party was founded by then-President of the Bank
of Estonia Siim Kallas as a split from National
Coalition Party Pro Patria.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves is the fourth
President of Estonia, in office since
2006. He was the leader of the Social
Democratic Party in the 1990s. He
served in the government as
Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1996
to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2002.
Later, he was a Member of the
European Parliament from 2004 to
2006. He was elected as President of
Estonia by an electoral college on 23
September 2006.

Andrus Ansip is
an Estonian politician who
has been Prime Minister of
Estonia since 2005. He is
chairman of the market
liberal Estonian Reform
Party

Executive branch:The Prime Minister of Estonia is
the head of government of the Republic of
Estonia. The prime minister is chosen by
the President and conferred by Parliament. This is
usually the leader of the largest party or coalition
in the Parliament. The activity of the government
is directed by the Prime Minister. He does not
head any specific ministry, but is, in accordance
with the constitution, the supervisor of the work of
the government.

Judicial branch:The supreme judiciary court is the
National Court or Riigikohus, with 19 justices
whose chairman is appointed by the parliament
for life on nomination by the president.

Legislative branch:The State Council has 101
members, elected for a four-year term
by proportional representation. Only Estonian
citizens may participate in parliamentary
elections.
Internet voting was first used in the 2005 local
elections and it has since then been used in
electing Riigikogu and the European Parliament
as well.

TERRITORIAL ORGANISATION OF FINLAND
The Republic of Estonia is divided into fifteen counties,
which are the administrative subdivisions of the country.
The first documented mentioning of Estonian political and
administrative subdivisions comes from the Chronicle of
Henry of Livonia, written in the 13th century during
the Northern Crusades.
A county is the biggest administrative subdivision. The
county government of each county is led by a county
governor who represents the national government at the
regional level. Governors are appointed by the Government
of Estonia for a term of five years

LANGUAGE/S SPOKEN
The official language, Estonian, belongs to the Finnic branch
of the Uralic languages. Estonian is closely related to
Finnish, spoken on the other side of the Gulf of Finland,
and is one of the few languages of Europe that is not of
an Indo-European origin.
Russian is still spoken as a secondary language by forty- to
seventy-year-old ethnic Estonians, because Russian was
the unofficial language of the Estonian SSR from 1944 to
1991 and taught as a compulsory second language during
the Soviet era.

Estonia declared independence from the Soviet Union in
March 1990. Soviet resistance ensued, but after
recognition by European and other countries, the Soviet
Union acknowledged Estonian nationhood on Sept. 6,
1991. UN membership followed on Sept. 17.
The newly independent nation embraced free-market reforms.
Fueled by foreign investments, economic advances
continued.
In 2004, Estonia became a member of the European Union as
well as of NATO.
In Sept. 2006, Toomas Hendrik Ilves was elected president,
defeating incumbent Arnold Rüütel.

In March 2007, Estonia allowed Internet voting for
Parliamentary elections, becoming the first country to do
so. Prime Minister Andrus Ansip's Reform Party narrowly
won the election, taking 31 out of 101 seats, just two more
than the Centre Party.
Violent protests erupted in April when Estonian officials
moved a controversial bronze statue of a Soviet soldier
from a park in Tallinn and placed in it a military cemetery.
One person died in the protests and dozens were injured.

DATE OF INCORPORATION TO THE EUROPEAN UNION.
They incorporated to the European Union in 2004

OFFICIAL NAME OF THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL
Republic of Latvia is a country in the Baltic
region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the
north by Estonia to the south by Lithuania , to the
east by Russia, and to the southeast
by Belarus and it shares a maritime border to the
west with Sweden. The most populated cities are
Liepaja and Daugavpils

FLAG OF LATVIA
Latvia's flag was officially adopted on February 27, 1990.
Long a part of the former Soviet Union, the modern flag is
symbolic of a revered time-honored legend. It is told that
the deep red color is representative of the blood shed by a
wounded Latvian leader, and the white represents the cloth
used to wrap his wounds.

COAT OF ARMS OF LATVIA
The Latvian coat of arms was created in 1918, and combines
symbols of the statehood and ancient historical districts of
Latvia.
The sun in the middle of the piece symbolizes national
statehood, and has 17 rays symbolizing the 17 Latvian-
inhabited districts. The 3 stars are an inclusion of the
historical districts. Western and southwestern Latvia are
represented by the red lion, while Northeastern and
southeastern Latvia are represented by the silver.

CURRENCY OF LATVIA
The currency of Latvia is the Latvian Lats

ANTHEM OF LATVIA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKITbBjO4nE

Latvia has a total
density of 34,3
inhabitants per sq km
The total area of Latvia is 64,589 sq km.Of that total
area all is composed of land
https://www.google.es/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:LVA&dl=es&hl=es&q=poblacion%20letonia

FORM OF GOVERNMENT
The Government of Latvia is the central
government of the Republic of Latvia.
The Constitution of Latvia (Satversme) outlines
the nation as a parliamentary
republic represented by
a unicameral parliament (Saeima) and the
Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia,
which form the executive branch of the
Government of Latvia.

UNITY
Unity is a liberal-conservative political
party in Latvia, founded as an electoral
alliance of the New Era Party, Civic Union, and
the Society for Other Politics on 6 March 2010.

Andris Bērziņš is
a Latvian businessman and
politician. He is the President of
Latvia, having won the presidential
election held on 2 June 2011.From
1993 to 2004, Bērziņš was the
President of Unibanka.

Valdis Dombrovskis is
a Latvian politician who
has been Prime Minister of
Latvia since 2009. He
served as Minister of
Finance from 2002 to 2004
and was a Member of the
European Parliament for
the New Era Party.

Executive branch:The Prime Minister is appointed by
the President. The Prime Minister then chooses
the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) which has to be
accepted by the Parliament. The Parliament can
remove the Prime Minister and Cabinet by means
of a vote of no-confidence (Constitution of Latvia,
Article 59).

Judicial branch: Judges' appointments are
confirmed by Parliament and are irrevocable,
except on the decision of the Judicial
Disciplinary Board or on the judgment of a
criminal court. There is a special Constitutional
Court, with the authority to rule on the
constitutionality of laws, whose members must
be confirmed by an absolute majority vote of
Parliament, by secret ballot.

Legislative branch:The unicameral Parliament
(Saeima) has 100 members, elected for a four-
year term by proportional representation with a
5% threshold. The parliamentary elections are
held on the first Saturday of October. Locally,
Latvia elects municipal councils, consisting of 7
to 60 members, depending on the size of the
municipality, also by proportional
representation for a four-year term.

TERRITORIAL ORGANISATION OF LATVIA
Latvia is a unitary state, currently divided into 110 one-
level municipalities and 9 republican cities with their own
city council and administration.There are four historical
and cultural regions in
Latvia Courland, Latgale, Vidzeme, Zemgale, which are
recognised in Constitution of Latvia. Selonia, a part of
Zemgale, is sometimes considered culturaly distinct
region, but it is not part of any formal division.

LANGUAGE/S SPOKEN
The sole official language of Latvia is Latvian, which belongs to
the Baltic language group of the Indo-European language
family. Another notable language of Latvia is the nearly
extinct Livonian language of the Finnic branch of the Uralic
language family.
On February 18, 2012 Latvia held a constitutional referendum on
whether to adopt Russian as a second official language.
According to the Central Election Commission, 74,8% voted
against, 24.88% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.11%.
However, a large part of Latvia's Russian speaking community
could not vote in this referendum because they hold non-
citizen status and thus have no right to vote.

Latvia was one of the most economically well-off and
industrialized parts of the Soviet Union. When a coup
against Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev failed in 1991,
the Baltic nations saw an opportunity to free themselves
from Soviet domination and, following the actions of
Lithuania and Estonia, Latvia declared its independence on
Aug. 21, 1991.
Most other nations quickly recognized their independence, in
Sept. 2, 1991, President Bush announced full diplomatic
recognition for Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. The Soviet
Union recognized Latvia's independence on Sept. 6, and
UN membership followed in Sept. 17, 1991.

In June 2003, President Vike-Freiberga easily won reelection.
In Dec. 2004, Aigars Kalvitis became prime minister,
forming the twelfth government since Latvia's
independence from Russia. The nation became a member
of both the EU and NATO in 2004.

Prime Minister Kalvitis resigned in Dec. 2007, following a
series of widespread protests over his attempts to fire anti
corruption investigator Aleksejs Loskutovs.
A series of riots sparked by political grievances and a
worsening economy broke out in the capital, Riga, during
Jan. 2009.
Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis resigned in Feb. 2009, when
the Latvian economy began to shrink at an alarming rate, a
result of the global financial crisis. His government had
become unpopular in 2008, when it was forced to increase
taxes and cut public spending after the country's banking
system collapsed.

Latvia sunk deeper into a financial morass in 2009, with
soaring unemployment that reached 22.3% in November
the highest rate in the EU and heavy debt that prompted
the government to implement steep budget cuts and turn
to the IMF and the EU for a bailout. Dombrovskis lost his
majority in parliament in March 2010 when his largest
coalition partner bolted from the government in protest of
the austerity measures. He resumed a majority after his
coalition won 58.6% of the vote in October 2010 elections.
His Unity party took 33 out of 100 seats, and his coalition
partner, the Greens and Farmers Union, earned 22 seats.

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