The Ministry of Justice is examining what alternatives there might be to the arrangement of the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defence Forces.
In practice this means the ministry is pondering whether the task should be removed from the President of the Republic, and if so, then to whom should it go.
As things stand under the Finnish Constitution, the President may delegate the task to another Finnish citizen.
In peacetime, the position involves among other things the appointment of military officers in conjunction with the Minister of Defence.
The decision to look into alternatives is part of a project to examine how well the new Constitution (which entered into force in March 2000) has worked in practice.
The President of the Republic currently conducts Finland’s foreign policy in co-operation with the Council of State, and one aspect of the ministerial study will be to see what influence the role of Commander-in-Chief has on the conduct of other foreign relations.
