Former Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament Paavo Lipponen (SDP) said that he would give up the office space that he still has in Parliament.
Speaking on the morning television programme of the commercial television network MTV3, Lipponen said that he was relinquishing the room because of the media uproar that emerged over the issue recently.
Lipponen, who did not run for re-election to Parliament in last year’s election, was given an office in Parliament to help in writing his memoirs.
The arrangement raised questions in the media at the outset, and the issue emerged again recently when Lipponen agreed to serve as an advisor to Nord Stream, the company that plans to build a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea.
Critics said that Lipponen should not have office space in the Parliament while working as a lobbyist.
