Stubb NATO comments raise questions

Vanhanen: Stubb spoke as party member, not Foreign Minister

Alexander Stubb

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Recent comments by Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (Nat. Coalition Party) in favour of Finnish membership in NATO have raised questions in Finnish public debate.
      Last week Stubb said in a speech to Finnish ambassadors gathered in Helsinki that he takes a positive view of possible NATO membership for Finland.
      In a radio interview programme on Sunday, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) wrote off the comments, saying that they were “more statements of the National Coalition Party than the Foreign Minister”.
      The Finnish government does not currently plan to apply for NATO membership.
     
Vanhanen was later asked by Helsingin Sanomat if it was possible for Stubb, the National Coalition Party member, to disagree with him on the NATO question, while Stubb the Foreign Minister agrees with him.
     “I will not take a stand on this. We must nevertheless be able to engage in dialogue, in which key persons bring their views forward. Otherwise we will return to the old days in which only one liturgy had to be followed. We also need to examine where we speak. When we state Finland’s official position, the situation is quite different”, Vanhanen said by telephone from Brussels on Monday.
     
Chancellor of Justice Jaakko Jonkka was asked if a minister giving a public speech can make a separation between his or her public role and private opinions.
     “I do not want to take a stand on any individual cases. On the general level it can be said that it is a line drawn in water. There are no specific legal criteria for solving the matter. Both ministers and high-ranking civil servants will have to ponder if they can put on a separate coat as it were, and present opinions on their own behalf.
     Jonkka emphasised that even ministers have the freedom to speak as private individuals.
     “What is important is how listeners experience the matter.”


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Vanhanen and Stubb criticise Russian military action in Georgia (26.8.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat