L-R: Juha Sipilä, Prime Minister of the Republic of Finland; Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister, Minister of State; Riikka Pakarinen, Special Adviser (European Affairs) of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Finland; Credit: © SIP / Jean-Christophe Verhaegen, all rights reserved

Today, on Thursday 8 March 2018, during his visit to Luxembourg, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Finland, Juha Sipilä, was welcomed by Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel at the Hôtel de Bourgogne.

In the context of this state visit to Luxembourg, the Prime Ministers mainly discussed bilateral relations between Finland and the Grand Duchy as well as major issues of European political and economic news, including Brexit.

In this framework, the two counterparts discussed the possibility of further strengthening the bilateral ties between the two EU Member States.

Moreover, Xavier Bettel stressed the need to minimise the negative impacts of Brexit. He also said that Luxembourg is ready to "complete the economic and monetary union to make the Euro area more resilient to potential financial shocks".

In addition, Juha Sipilä and Xavier Bettel visited the facilities of Caves Bernard-Massard​ as well as those of SES and LuxGovSat in Betzdorf.