Support in Defence Committee for EU mandate for deployment of forces

Government report causes splits within parties

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Parliament might take a cautiously positive stand toward allowing Finland to take part in operations of European Union combat forces on the basis of a mandate from the EU, even if there is no mandate from the United Nations.
      The issue is being discussed in the Parliament's Defence Committee, which is preparing its response to the government's report on security and defence policy.
      Defence Committee chairman Kauko Juhantalo (Centre) is calling for a positive reaction to the issue of EU mandates for crisis management operations. The Social Democratic Party is trying to curb the enthusiasm.
      In other respects, the debate over the report has sparked a conspicuous disagreements within both the opposition National Coalition Party and the Social Democrats.
     
The Defence Committee is working to find a wording that will satisfy the various groups. The Social Democrats say that Parliament should not make any final decisions yet.
      Potentially controversial issues include a Finnish stand on whether or not to remain non-allied, the proposed establishment of regional defence units, and decisions on the possible shutting down of garrisons.
      A bit bone of contention has been the issue of eliminating infantry land mines. Somewhat unexpectedly, the sharpest disputes on that issue have been within the National Coalition Party.
     
The National Coalition Party MPs on the Defence Committee, led by General Olli Nepponen, are ready to accept the government's view that Finland should join the ban on infantry land mines in 2012, and that the mines would be eliminated by 2016.
      The party's chairman, Jyrki Katainen, wants to promote the idea that Finland would not join the ban on mines before 2020. Katainen took this view already before the debate over the government's national defence report began, turning it into an issue of prestige.
      Katainen's views have been characterised as party-political, while Nepponen follows the lines of the Defence Forces. Representatives of the military on the committee have been satisfied with the government's decision to allocate extra funding to the Defence Forces for the purchase of weapons that would replace the mines.
     
Now the committee is hoping to come up with language that would satisfy Katainen, as well as the Centre Party's Esa Lahtela and Lauri Oinonen, both of whom want to preserve the land mines.
      Katainen has also tried to persuade his fellow party members on the Defence Committee to voice powerful criticism at the government's report.
      The shortcomings that Katainen wants to underscore include a lack of vision for the future, and a lack of analysis of EU security guarantees and of relations among the United States, the EU, and Russia.
      Katainen's views reflect the criticism of the report that came from the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, which the Defence Committee has been reluctant to join.
      To make sure that his views come out, Katainen decided that he should be the one to speak on behalf of the National Coalition Party's Parliamentary group when the issue comes up for debate in the Parliaments' plenary session on December 20th.
     
The national defence report is also causing divisions in the Social Democratic Party.
      The focus of the dispute is which of the party's Parliamentarians should give the group's official response to the government's defence policy report.
      The executive committee of the SDP Parliamentary Group proposed on Thursday that MP Jouni Backman should give the speech.
      Reijo Laitinen, one of the Social Democratic Party members on the Defence Committee, insisted that the speaker should be one of the party's representatives on the Defence Committee. As alternatives to Backman, Laitinen proposed either Antero Kekkonen or Eero Heinäluoma.
      In addition to issues of prestige, a clear sticking point involves the disagreements on security policy that many of the Social Democratic Parliamentarians have with fellow Social Democrat Liisa Jaakonsaari, the chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  US Ambassador to NATO: Finland could join elite forces (30.11.2004)
  Finns approve of EU combat forces - sharp differences between men and women (29.11.2004)

Helsingin Sanomat