Finland has been ordered by the European Court of Justice to pay duties for weaponry it imported between 1998 and 2002. The court found that Finland had violated its membership obligations by failing to pay duties on its F-18 Hornet jet fighters and other armaments.
Finland has not yet calculated how much it will have to pay in back duty fees and interest. Ismo Mäenpää of the Ministry of Finance estimates that the sum will be in the tens of millions of euros.
The Finnish government decided when Finland joined the EU that defence materiel would be exempt from import duties. Mäenpää says that Finland had learned that some other countries had operated in the same way.
These countries include Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Greece, and Germany, who also were ordered by the court to pay their unpaid duties.
Security interests were the reason given for not paying the customs duties. It was felt that making declarations of payment could reveal what kind of weaponry has been acquired.
