A report on NATO drafted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is almost ready for publication. Officials at the Foreign Ministry say that the matter is still being fine-tuned.
The ministry does not plan to make the report public before it has first been put before the President and the government's foreign and security policy committee. Official sources say that this could happen before the end of the year.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Ilkka Kanerva (Nat. Coalition Party) has said earlier that the government should be the one to publicise the NATO report. President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) have felt that the Foreign Ministry can decide on publishing the report.
The government decided during the drafting of the government programme in March this year, to have a report drawn up reviewing the likely effects of both joining NATO and staying out of it.
The formulation ironed out by the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party leaves it unclear if the paper is to be part of an extensive report on security and defence policy, or if it is to be a separate report drawn up at the Foreign Ministry.
The uncertain status of the report is the reason for the differing views on making it public. If the Foreign Ministry is the one to release it, it will have the status of an internal paper of the ministry itself. The NATO report would have more weight if it were first discussed by the government's foreign and security policy committee.
