Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committees say they plan to express their dissatisfaction over key information they say was withheld from MPs about Finland’s cooperation with Sweden and the Nato military alliance.
The committees say they are planning a joint statement to the Constitutional Law Committee on Parliament’s right of access to information. The committee members said they were kept in the dark about an agreement drawn up among Finland, Sweden and Nato in 2018 regarding intensifying information exchange and dialogue during crisis situations. Matters relating to foreign and security policy as well as military cooperation are within the purview of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committees, respectively.
The agreement is referred to as an ”arrangement” in government circles. According to it, in difficult or crisis situations, Finland, Sweden and Nato could separately agree to increased information exchange and dialogue. For example, Finland could ask Nato for confidential information and vice versa. The country holding the information or the military alliance would be able to decide whether or not to share it. […]
Deputy chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, former Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja hinted at his dissatisfaction with the situation in a Facebook comment that he posted on Tuesday.
”Today the Defence and Foreign Affairs Committees prepared a statement to the Constitutional Law Committee about Parliament’s right of access to information. While the overall performance is commendable, there is also a more serious case [before us] that should not be repeated,” he wrote. Läs artikel