Finns deny steamy image of their new office

Date: 04/07/1996

Helsinki's Mayor Eva-Riitta Siitonen was in town last week, doing the rounds to publicise the opening of the Finnish capital's EU office in Brussels.

It was necessary, she explained, because “Helsinki is one of the EU's less-known peripheral cities which needs actively to disseminate information about itself to achieve at least a tolerable level of recognition in the Union”.

Helsinki will soon get all the recognition it needs, once word gets round about the sauna installed in the new headquarters.

But before you start queuing up with your towels on the pretext of learning more about the Finns, Entre Nous can confirm this is not a mixed sauna.

“Finnish people do not go in for that sort of thing,” explained one official. “Not in the sauna anyway.”