Major Finnish corporations provided accommodation for EU ministers in Finnish Lapland

Finnish Foreign Minister says the goal was to ”minimise costs”

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A number of European foreign ministers as well as Catherine Ashton, the new EU Foreign Minister, enjoyed the hospitality of large Finnish corporations at Saariselkä in Finnish Lapland last weekend.
      According to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, the eight foreign ministers, their families as well as protocol officials and civil servants, were all accommodated free of charge at the guest lodges of ten major Finnish corporations.
     
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs paid all expenses, including the cleaning of the lodges and breakfasts. The corporations did not charge any rent for the use of the lodges, with the exception of the Finnish forest company Metso.
      Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb had invited EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and foreign ministers from five other EU states as well as from Turkey to attend a meeting at Saariselkä last weekend.
      The purpose of the unofficial discussions at Saariselkä was to improve the foreign policy of the EU and its relations to Turkey.
     
Many ministers had brought their families with them, which was no problem, as the spacious log houses have many bedrooms and large living rooms.
      Minister Stubb and his family spent two days at a lodge owned by Atria, the largest meat processor in Finland.
      Stubb notes that the purpose of the new arrangement was to ”minimise costs and to polish the image of Finland”.
      ”We asked for large companies to rent us their guest lodges. I was personally involved in the negotiations, which resulted in ten log cabins being made available. Only one company sent us an invoice”, Stubb reports.
      In practice, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs sent a letter to major companies, mentioning the upcoming expectional ministerial meeting.
     
Stubb says that the accommodation of all these people at a hotel would have cost the Finnish state considerably more.
      The brand new hotel Gielas, a new part of the old Tunturihotelli, meets all ministerial requirements, but according to Stubb, the foreign ministers have seen quite enough hotel rooms but hardly ever any Lappish log cabins, let alone other local specialities.
      Stubb notes further that the security services are easier to organise at guest lodges than at hotels.
      ”Pre-meeting checks are naturally thorough when delegates of this calibre are concerned”, Stubb adds.
     
The use of corporations’ guest lodges for a major state visit sounds like a novel modus operandi, but it is not entirely new even at Saariselkä.
      However, the last time was 40 years ago, when some Soviet and US negotiators were accommodated in the village of Laanila, some three kilometres south of Saariselkä. In the 1970s, the negotiations were focusing on strategic arms limitation talks.
     
One might ask whether the use of major corporations as sponsors could endanger the independence of ministers and whether the corporations in question could somehow benefit from the provision of accommodation in their export marketing.
      Alexander Stubb’s staff explained on Thursday night that the corporations were not allowed to select their ministerial guests. The allocation of accommodation was made by the Protocol Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, responsible for planning and arranging incoming and outgoing official visits.
     
According to the staff, the ministers had no idea of who owned the guest lodge in which they stayed.
      The only corporation to charge the state for the use of its guest lodge was Metso.
      The charge for two nights was EUR 1,000. In other words, the other corporates might be said to have given the Finnish state a benefit of EUR 10,000.
     
The corporations offering their guest lodges for the use of the ministerial guests were: Rautaruukki, Atria, Wärtsilä, Altia, Metso, Raisio, Tapiola, YIT, and Kemira, which provided the meeting venue. Some protocol officials and civil servants stayed at the lodges owned by MTV3 and Veikkaus.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Stubb hosts EU meeting at resort in Lapland (15.3.2010)

Links:
  Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland press release 15.3.2010

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