| Erkki Tuomioja | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Parliament of Finland | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 22 March 1991 |
|
| Constituency | Helsinki |
| In office 23 March 1970 – 23 March 1979 |
|
| Constituency | Helsinki |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 22 June 2011 |
|
| President | Tarja Halonen |
| Prime Minister | Jyrki Katainen |
| Preceded by | Alexander Stubb |
| In office 25 February 2000 – 18 April 2007 |
|
| President | Tarja Halonen |
| Prime Minister | Paavo Lipponen Anneli Jäätteenmäki Matti Vanhanen |
| Preceded by | Tarja Halonen |
| Succeeded by | Ilkka Kanerva |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 22 June 2011 |
|
| President | Tarja Halonen |
| Prime Minister | Jyrki Katainen |
| Preceded by | Alexander Stubb |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 1, 1946 Helsinki, Finland |
| Nationality | Finnish |
| Political party | SDP |
| Spouse(s) | Marja Helena Rajala (1978-) |
| Religion | Atheist |
| Website | http://www.tuomioja.org/ |
Erkki Sakari Tuomioja (born 1 July 1946) is the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs. He is currently a member of the Finnish Parliament.
Tuomioja is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, although his political views are thought to be more to the left than the party line. He is also a member of ATTAC. In the past, Tuomioja dated the current Finnish president Tarja Halonen.
He was the president of the Nordic Council in 2008.[1]
Erkki Tuomioja is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy.
Tuomioja comes from a family of politicians. His father Sakari Tuomioja was a prominent liberal Finnish politician and diplomat, and the challenger of Urho Kekkonen for the conservatives and liberals in the 1956 presidential elections. His maternal grandmother was Hella Wuolijoki, the Estonian born writer and socialist activist.[2]
Tuomioja holds the degrees of Master of Social Sciences (1971) and Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration (1974) from the Helsinki School of Economics, as well as Licentiate in Social Sciences (1980) and Doctor in Social Sciences (1996) from the University of Helsinki. In addition to Finnish, Tuomioja speaks Swedish, English, French, German and Estonian.
Tuomioja has been a member of the Finnish Parliament 1970–1979 and 1991–present. He held the position of Minister of Trade and Industry in Lipponen's 2nd government, and became the Minister for Foreign Affairs after Tarja Halonen was elected the President of Finland.[3]
Tuomioja, like several other Finnish socialist politicians of today, took part in the illegal occupation of the Old Student House (Vanha ylioppilastalo) in Helsinki on 25 November 1968. He was member of the anti-war group Committee of 100 of Finland and took part in the so-called Erik Schüller case, in which a group of students made public incitement against obligatory conscription. Despite his anti-war stance, Tuomioja did carry out his own mandatory military service and is a reservist sergeant.
Tuomioja is the author of several books. His A Delicate Shade of Pink about his grandmother Hella Wuolijoki and her sister Salme Murrik won the Non-Fiction Finlandia Prize in 2006. The book was originally written in English and translated to Finnish as Häivähdys punaista.[2]
Tuomioja is a declared atheist.[4]
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When Finland held the rotating EU Presidency in the second half of 2006, Tuomioja had a prominent role as the spokesman of European Union foreign policy. He was among the first to demand an immediate cessation of hostilities in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. He was one of Finland's most dominant politicians in the 1990's.
| Preceded by Tarja Halonen |
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Finland) 25 February 2000 — 18 April 2007 |
Succeeded by Ilkka Kanerva |
| Preceded by Alexander Stubb |
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Finland) 22 June 2011 — |
Succeeded by |