Brussels, 13/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - Today at the seat of the Council of the European Union in Brussels, after the first meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) under her chairmanship, Ireland's Permanent Representative to the European Union, Anne Anderson, unveiled a plaque to commemorate the late Antti Satuli, who was Finland's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the European Union from 1995 to 2002.
Antti Satuli had played an active part in the negotiations on Finland's EU membership before becoming the first Finnish ambassador to the EU on 1 January 1995, a press release recalls. He had chaired the Committee of Permanent Representatives during the Finnish Presidency in the second half of 2002. In January 2002, he became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Helsinki.
Ambassador Anderson paid tribute to Antti Satuli's "huge contribution to the work of the European Union" and in particular to his "openness and generosity of spirit" - which can also be affirmed by the authorised journalists in Brussels to whom he was well known.