The Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) consists of 35 industrial associations, which include 16,000 private companies, 96% of them are small and medium-sized. The members of the Confederation collectively account for 70% of the country's GDP, 95% of exports, and provide 950,000 people with jobs. EK's objectives are to create a competitive operating environment for business in Finland, lobby the interests of Finnish businessmen when making important socio-economic decisions at the national scale, in the EU and at international forums, and provide informational and consulting services to its members.
Almost all of Finland's lobbying organisations are members of the Confederation, which include energy, financial, chemical, pharmaceutical, construction, technological, and metallurgical companies.
EK supports further development of cooperation with the Russian authorities and business leaders, contributing towards enhanced cooperation between Russia and the EU.
Despite the current economic downturn and a decrease in mutual trade, the Confederation considers Russia to be one of its key business partners and believes that bilateral relations will be even more fruitful in the future. As for Russia-EU relations, Finnish business leaders believe that the legal basis of cooperation should be updated and a new treaty should replace the outdated Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. They also believe that the process of eliminating trade barriers between the EU and Russia is not fast enough. One of the Confederation's proclaimed goals is to create a Russia-EU open economic space.
EK actively participates in organising round table meetings between Russian and European industrialists, as it considers such meetings to be very effective in coordination positions to be subsequently upheld in dialogue with the authorities.