Expect a formal decision on #Finland applying for #NATO membership by the Finnish parliament in May. The process in Finland explained
Expect a formal decision on #Finland applying for #NATO membership by the Finnish parliament in May. The process in Finland explained
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This is how the NATO solution moves forward: report on Maundy Thursday, party leaders set up as important monitoring group
IN practice, party leaders and parliamentary group chairmen are to decide whether or not to apply for NATO membership. After that, the official decision will be made by TP-Utva.
The soldiers of NATO member states are already a familiar sight in Finland, but there is no certainty about the assistance they will receive in real time, because Finns lack the security guarantees of NATO Article 5.
The milestones of Finland’s NATO solution are beginning to be clear.
Government and party sources tell Iltalehti that the supplement to the foreign and security policy report will be completed before Easter.
It is scheduled for release on Maundy Thursday, April 14th.
Support for NATO membership is strong in the State Department and the Ministry of Defense. Their senior officials will write a draft supplement to the report, the wording of which will be approved by TP-Utva (Committee on Foreign and Security Policy of the President of the Republic and the Government).
The government of Prime Minister Sanna Marin (sd) will then publish an updated report and submit it to Parliament.
The supplement to the report does not take a direct position on NATO membership.
The parliamentary committees will begin expert hearings immediately after Easter. At least the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Defense will report on the report.
The former is led by Jussi Halla-aho , a basic Finn who supports NATO membership , and the latter is led by the Coalition Party’s Ilkka Kanerva , who also has a positive attitude towards NATO membership .
NATO keys with party leaders
However, parliamentary committees are not at the heart of the NATO solution, and a separate monitoring group will be set up to support the UTP report.
The members of the monitoring group will be the party leaders and the chairmen of the parliamentary groups. Helsingin Sanomat also announced the establishment of the monitoring group on Wednesday .
In this monitoring group, party leaders and group leaders are supposed to decide in practice whether or not to apply for NATO membership.
Party leaders and group leaders have a mandate to express the will of their party and parliamentary group in the NATO settlement.
Transparency is a good thing in general but why with this?
I don’t want to read a headline in April saying “*Russia starts a special military intervention in Finland*”.