Green rebellion in Lex Nokia debate prompts Centre to take up Vuotos project again

Law on foreigners passed overwhelmingly; only True Finns object

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The amendment to the law on data protection of electronic communications, the so-called Lex Nokia, was given the content which the Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Communications had proposed.
      A call by the Green League to alter the wording of the bill was voted down.
      The Green proposal was that the right of employers to handle sender and recipient information of employee e-mails should be limited only to cases in which there is real suspicion of a leak in corporate secrets.
      Permission to dig up the information would not be granted for suspected misuse of the communications network, and the right to monitor would not apply to Internet phone calls.
     
The entire opposition in Parliament - the Social Democratic Party, the Left Alliance, the Christian Democrats, and the True Finns - supported the Greens’ proposal. Five out of the 13 Green MPs voted for the initiative. The rest of the government parties - the Centre, the National Coalition, and the Swedish People’s Party - voted for the bill.
      The Greens’ proposals for changes were voted down by 96 to 66. A total of 37 Members of Parliament were absent from the vote.
     
The move by the Greens sparked irritation, especially among the main government party, the Centre.
      MP Hannes Manninen (Centre), who represents Finnish Lapland, shouted to Minister of Justice Tuija Brax: “So much for the water bill!”
      Manninen was referring to a notation made in the government programme stating that amendments to the law on water must be made unanimously. The notation was something insisted on by the Greens to prevent the government from pushing the construction of the Vuotos reservoir through a vote in the House.
      The Greens have opposed the Vuotos dam project for environmental reasons.
     
In the Parliament café, Manninen expressed the view that confidence in the Greens is virtually a thing of the past.
      There were rumblings among Centre Party Members of Parliament that the price of the Greens’ solo act on the data protection law would be to force the Greens to swallow the "unanimous" notation in the government’s minutes.
      Green Parliamentary Group chairwoman Anni Sinnemäki said in the evening that the Greens had not been threatened with the construction of Vuotos, and that the Greens have also not agreed on any linkage of the two issues. She added that her starting point is adherence to the government programme.
      Parliament will vote on accepting or rejecting Lex Nokia on Wednesday of next week.
     
Also in Parliament, the True Finns were the only party grouping to vote against proposed changes to the law on foreigners, which was passed overwhelmingly, 161-5.
      The bill sets up conditions for granting a residence permit on the basis of “humanitarian protection”.
      It also allows those with a temporary residence permit the right to seek employment.
      Parliament further approved a lengthy statement to go with the law, in which the government is called on to carefully follow the number and status of people who have been granted a temporary residence permit, keep abreast of how deportation proceeds, once the impediments to removal from the country are no longer valid, and in general to monitor how well the law functions and the impact that it has on immigration.

More on this subject:
 Kallasvuo: Nokia is not planning to leave Finland

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish asylum policy attacked in Parliament (18.2.2009)
  SDP leader wants government to withdraw Lex Nokia (16.2.2009)
  Lex Nokia furore fuelled further by minister´s strip-search remark (13.2.2009)
  Pekkarinen still wants Vuotos reservoir built - eventually (6.10.2008)
  National Audit Office denounces preparation of Lex Nokia (12.2.2009)

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