President  Sauli Niinistö  said on Tuesday that no issue or subject will be considered off the table when he meets with his Russian counterpart  Vladimir Putin  within the next few weeks.
 The President's office has yet to announce a date or place for the meeting.
 "In addition to our official sit-down we will also speak privately in greater length over the course of the evening," Niinistö said. "Now that we've met a number of times already, no subject is taboo."
 The President did not comment on the likelihood of recent anti-Putin demonstrations and subsequent arrests in Moscow coming up in their talks.
 "We will be speaking quite freely on a number of topics. I don't consider it polite to reveal them beforehand."
 Niinistö responded to questions about the coming meeting while on a visit to Mariehamn, where he toured the Pommern museum ship and a microbrewery in the village of Godby.
 President dismisses Orbán's comments
 As for the  criticism leveled against democracy in Finland  by Hungarian President  Viktor Orbán  in late July, Niinistö urged people not to react too strongly to the foreign leader's comments.
 Niinistö said he has followed Orbán's career since the 1990s.
 "In those days he was very conciliatory; he has changed tack since then. I wouldn't pay much mind to what he says. Perhaps he wants people to react. Many across Europe are aware of his manner and his style; I don't think anyone has taken the bait."
 Orbán's comments were themselves a reaction to Finland's announcement that it would use its EU presidency period to move toward tying EU funding to each country's efficacy in rule of law.
 Orbán pointed to Finland's lack of a separate court for dealing with constitutional law matters, for instance, implying that Hungarians find it ridiculous when Finland calls attention to Hungary's enforcement of the rule of law.
 Finns Party sides with Orbán
 Meanwhile chair  Jussi Halla-aho  of the anti-immigration Finns Party said that Orbán's comments were legitimate.
 "It's understandable that Hungary has criticised Finland in light of the fact that almost all of Finland's political parties as well as the government have been very aggressive about Hungary," Halla-aho said in early August.
 Niinistö said that contradictory opinions on foreign policy exist in Finland's Parliament, just as in parliaments elsewhere in Europe.
 "It seems that Finns Party supporters see something they like in Orbán's politics, and they are expressing that," Niinistö said.


Shortly before unveiling the broad strokes of next year's budget plan, Finance Minister  Mika Lintilä  called for increased immigration as the nation faces a growing labour shortage.
 After going over each ministry's budget requests, Centre Party minister Lintilä has this week been negotiating on budget plans with civil servants at the Finance Ministry.
 Also taking part in the talks is Minister of Local Government and Ownership Steering  Sirpa Paatero , representing Prime Minister  Antti Rinne 's Social Democratic Party. Lintilä served as economic affairs minister in the previous Centre-led government, while Paatero is a former international development minister.
 The Finance Ministry's own proposals on next year's spending and revenues are to be made public on Friday. At that point the other ministries will be given preliminary frameworks for their own budgets.
 The centre-left government, which took office in June, aims for balanced public finances by 2023 – while also expanding spending by 1.2 billion euros. The government's targets are based on presumptions of employment growth.
 Even a baby boom wouldn't be enough
 Lintilä sees finding enough workers as one of the largest challenges and says that the need for work-based immigration will grow in the coming years.
 "As it is, there's already competition for those with special know-how, but we will need workers in all sectors," he told Yle.
 The public sector will be especially hard hit by the labour shortage.
 "The biggest challenge will be that over the next decade, half of those working for the state will retire, for instance. The big question is where we'll find workers then," says Lintilä.
 Last year there were some 74,000 state employees, as well as many more working for local and regional authorities.
 Lintilä says that meeting this challenge will require both an increase in productivity and bringing more workers into Finland. The need for staff to fill vacant positions will be so urgent that even any increase in the birthrate would not suffice to solve the problem.
 In late July, Statistics Finland pegged the  unemployment rate  at 6.5 percent.


Inspector  Pekka Hätönen  will be allowed to continue as head investigator into the suspicions of ethnic agitation against three members of Finnish parliament, police chief  Lasse Aapio  announced Wednesday. Hätönen faced criticism from other police, politicians and citizens alike due to his prior personal affiliation with the Green Party.
 Hätönen, who heads the hate crime division in Helsinki, ran as a Greens candidate in the city of Espoo in the 2017 municipal elections. Chief Aapio said that Hätönen was not found to have any existing ties to the Green Party, and may therefore continue in his work.
 The MPs Hätönen recently began investigating are all suspected of the crime of ethnic agitation  because of their past comments . They are all from different parties;  Päivi Räsänen  chairs the Christian Democratic Party,  Hussein al-Taee  is with the Social Democratic Party while  Juha Mäenpää  represents the Finns Party.
 Ethnic agitation, or encitement of ethnic hatred, is a crime in Finland. The law defines it as making available to the public an expression of opinion or another message where a certain group is threatened, defamed or insulted on the basis of its race, skin colour, birth status, national or ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability.


Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  said on Thursday that the government will move quickly to dismantle the so-called activation model, a widely criticised employment measure put into place by the previous government under centrist premier  Juha Sipilä .
 Rinne last promised to nix the model  in early August .
 Party chair Rinne and his colleagues met in Helsinki for the Social Democratic Party's summer conference on Thursday. Rinne said that the scheme would be repealed this autumn.
 "You can be sure that the activation model will be scrapped," he spoke at the conference. "We've already arranged it within the cabinet. We don't want punishments and sanctions that treat people unfairly, so this measure is gone."
 The prime minister also revealed why the nationalist Finns Party and the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP) were not invited into the new government coalition.
 "The NCP played themselves out with their obscure right-wing financial politics. And the Finns Party had no desire to bring in real reforms, not to mention that their negative attitude toward developing this welfare state shot their chances at cooperation," he said.


President  Sauli Niinistö  will travel to Kiev, Ukraine, in mid-September to meet with freshly minted Ukrainian president  Volodymyr Zelensky , according to the office of the president.
 This is the first time that Niinistö will meet Zelensky, previously a comedian and actor, who started in the presidential post in May.
 It’s been five years since Niinistö last visited Ukraine in 2014.
 Helsinki meeting with Putin
 Before heading to Kiev, Niinistö is to meet with Russian president  Vladimir Putin  in Helsinki on August 21st.
 Putin and Niinistö have met regularly since they both took respective offices in 2012, even when many other European leaders declined to to meet with Putin in response to the Ukraine crisis.


Foreign Minister  Pekka Haavisto  says he plans to stamp out the harassment reported by staff members including some posted at Finland's embassies and other overseas missions.
 "There is no place for any kind of discrimination, harassment or bullying at the Foreign Ministry or any other workplace," Haavisto told an annual meeting of Finnish ambassadors in Helsinki on Monday.
 He spoke just after returning from Sudan and before hosting his Iranian counterpart.
 Haavisto said he had raised the issue of harassment at an employee meeting in early summer, but that he wanted to reiterate his message publicly.
 According to a study published last spring by the previous government, one in six ministry employees reported having experienced harassment. However many reported a reluctance to discuss the matter openly and a fear that managers might block the career advancement of those who speak out.
 "Immediate intervention"
 Three years ago the Finnish ambassador to Stockholm was  issued a warning and recalled  due to sexual harassment allegations. Still, some workers say the old culture remains deeply seated in the ministry.
 Haavisto says he plans to change the working culture in regard to speaking out, and condemned efforts to conceal and hush matters up.
 "I will ensure that reporting such matters is [considered] a service to the Foreign Ministry and its atmosphere," he told the envoys.
 The foreign minister stressed that responsibility lies with managers.
 "If I hear of any kind of inappropriate behaviour, there will be immediate intervention," Haavisto said.
 Sudan transition and Iranian human rights
 Haavisto took over as foreign minister from Finns Party founder  Timo Soini  in early June.
 Last month Haavisto was appointed as the EU negotiator in the Sudan crisis, helping to broker a political agreement between the Transition Military Council and the Forces for Freedom and Change.
 This past weekend he was in Khartoum to sign the agreement on a transitional period on behalf of the EU, expressing praise "first to the people of Sudan, in particular the women and youth, who stood firm but peacefully to have their voice heard."
 Also on Monday, Haavisto hosts a visit by Iranian Foreign Minister  Mohammed Javad Zarif , who is also meeting with President  Sauli Niinistö .
 According to the Finnish Foreign Ministry, discussions will include human rights and Finland's EU presidency term, which began in July.


On his first visit to Iceland since taking office in June, Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  meets on Monday evening with his Icelandic counterpart,  Katrín Jakobsdóttir . Besides bilateral and Nordic issues, the two are to discuss the Arctic Council.
 At a meeting in Rovaniemi in May, Iceland took over as chair of the eight-nation organisation after a two-year Finnish term. Besides the five Nordic states, it includes Russia, Canada and the US.
 On Tuesday Rinne and Jakobsdóttir join the other three Nordic prime ministers for their annual informal summer meeting in Reykjavik. Besides Nordic cooperation, they are to discuss climate policy and other current international issues such as the fate of the families of ISIS fighters now in a refugee camp in Syria.
 Left-leaning PMs
 As Finland's MTV news notes, four of the five premiers are leftists, including Rinne's fellow Social Democrats  Stefan Löfven  of Sweden and  Mette Fredriksen  of Denmark. Jakobsdottir represents the Left-Green Movement while Norway's  Erna Solberg  is the only conservative among the group.
 Also attending are representatives of the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland, as well as German Chancellor  Angela Merkel . She is to join the premiers for a working lunch.
 Measures to combat climate change will again be on the agenda along other global issues and German-Nordic cooperation.


The Oulu-based paper Kaleva carries a story on  unequal distribution of EU unemployment subsidies in Finland .
 Analysis by the Uutissuomalainen news service found that in the current 2014-2020 funding period, jobless residents in the east and north of Finland received five times more EU structural fund programme money (9,688 euros per capita) than people without work in the west and south (1,875 euros per capita). The paper points out that Finland's east and north receive 70 percent of the total 1.3 billion euros in  European Union  funding, despite being home to only one-quarter of the population.
 Kaleva writes that municipal leaders in areas receiving less funding are lobbying for a change in the subsidy's distribution criteria.
 "The criteria should in future not just be based on population, but also things like GDP, climate change and migration. Things like unemployment, youth unemployment, low education levels and social exclusion should also be factored in,"  Jaakko Mikkola , municipal director of Kymenlaakso, tells the paper. The municipality of Kymenlaakso has one of Finland's highest unemployment rates, at 9.1 percent.
 NCP meets to plan opposition strategy
 Lahti-based Etelä-Suomen Sanomat reports on the  party leadership congress of Finland's conservative National Coalition Party , being held today and tomorrow in the southwest city of Turku.
 Currently  the second-largest party in Finland, the NCP meeting will begin this morning with an address by party chair  Petteri Orpo . He has said he is willing to continue in his leadership role, and a delegate vote today will see if he receives a mandate to continue. ESS writes that a poll in late August in the paper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus found that only 17 percent of respondents would vote for Orpo, while party members  Elina Lepomäki  and  Antti Häkkänen  both attracted 19 percent support. Neither Lepomäki nor Häkkänen has come forward to challenge Orpo for the position, however.
 The NCP was relegated to the opposition after Finland's elections in April, after government negotiations with Social Democrat Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  were unable to find enough common ground. ESS reports that this is the first government term in twelve years where the NCP has not been a part of the ruling coalition.
 Putin's visit to shut down Helsinki market
 The tabloid Iltalehti talks about Russian President  Vladimir Putin 's upcoming  working visit to Finland  on Wednesday. Putin will meet with Finland's President  Sauli Niinistö  for  official discussions  in the Presidential Palace, where they plan to cover several bilateral and international issues. After a joint press conference, the visit will conclude with a dinner at the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress.
 This last item on the agenda will force the Market Square, a tourist mecca in the heart of the capital city, to close for the day. IL asked some of the stand owners how they felt about the market closure. Some were disappointed not to be able to sell their souvenirs, fresh fruit or fish during the height of the tourist season, but others were glad to have the luxury of a day off.
 Traffic in and around the Market Square will be redirected starting at noon tomorrow, and maritime activity in the harbour will also be limited. No private boats will be allowed in the area, and tourist boats to the zoo and the fortress, for example, will be re-routed to depart from piers in Hakaniemi and Katajanokka.
 Superbikes hit capital streets
 And finally, the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat has a feature story on a  new brand of "jet-propulsion" city bikes  capable of speeds of up to 45 kilometres per hour that are coming to the capital city.
 The Swiss company Bond Mobility will soon roll out a fleet of 100 bicycles that will have a range of up to 100 kilometres. Like with the controversial  electric scooters , users simply need to download an application to use the shared battery-powered "Bond" bikes. In the same way, they can also leave them anywhere when they are done using them. The app warns its customers to use the fast-moving bikes with caution and use a helmet.
 Traffic safety police superintendent  Konsta Arvelin  has responded to the new bike sharing scheme with apprehension about the danger they present, and with an important clarification: The fast electric bikes are categorised as mopeds, not bicycles. They might look like a bike, but closer inspection will reveal that they have small license plates, as they are registered in Finland as mopeds.
 "The same traffic laws apply to them as apply to mopeds: the same blood alcohol content limitations and the same legal requirement to wear a helmet. They are banned from pavements and footpaths," he said.
 Arvelin adds that Finnish traffic laws also prohibit mopeds from using regular bike paths, with the exception of certain paths that have a special mention that mopeds are allowed. He says the only place the Bond bikes can be used is in the city is in traffic, on the right side of the road.


Vladimir Putin  arrives in Finland on Wednesday off the back of protests in Moscow over candidates for upcoming local elections, possibly  radioactive fallout  from a new cruise missile and  a meeting  with French President Emmanuel Macron this week at which the two compared notes on domestic protests.
 Putin’s summer visit to Finland has become something of a tradition, with the Russian leader heading west each year since 2016. In 2018 he even  met US President Donald Trump in Helsinki .
 Finland is rarely on the world stage, and so Ilta-Sanomat  basks  in the spotlight in an editorial replete with potshots at those who criticised Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  for meeting Putin in the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula. IS singles out Sweden for special mention, noting with satisfaction that Sweden and the other Nordics have ‘followed Niinistö’s example’ and met Putin anyway when the Nordic prime ministers assembled in Moscow this spring.
 Iltalehti goes for  a recap  of previous meetings, warning Niinistö of the Putin propensity to surprise. Helsingin Sanomat  has  an analysis piece that outlines in some depth the countries' relations and motivations, concluding that relations are ‘as good as they could be nowadays’.
 Running through the IS and HS pieces is the fact that Finland has always wanted to keep a line open to Moscow, as discussions with Russian leaders are important in achieving diplomatic goals. IS recalls that Niinistö told Sweden’s then-Foreign Minister  Karin Enström  in 2016 that Finland has a longer border with Russia than all other EU countries combined. So the consensus it is important to stay on good terms with the neighbours.
 Refugee polling
 Agrarian paper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus  publishes  a poll that suggests opinion is split on whether Finland should take in refugees attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean. The poll suggests that 47 percent said Finland should not accept such refugees, 37 percent said it should, while 16 percent declined to offer an opinion.
 The paper reports this as ‘nearly half oppose’ taking in refugees, and also divides the poll by party support to state that supporters of the Centre Party and Finns Party are most opposed to accepting these migrants.
 Over the summer Finland  said  it would accept 13 asylum seekers rescued from the Meditarranean. Parliament’s Grand Committee, which sets the parameters of Finnish EU policy, made clear this was a one-off gesture and not a policy shift--so the issue is likely to return to the political agenda soon.
 Marin’s four-day week
 Should Finland look at cutting working hours? That’s the debate started by Transport and Communications Minister  Sanna Marin , who suggested that four days a week or six hours a day might be more appropriate than the current 40-hour week most workers perform.
 The Social Democrat’s idea did not get a warm reception from those on the right of Finnish politics or employers’ organisations. The  Juha Sipilä  government had pushed through an increase in working hours across the economy in order to improve competitiveness in export industries, so some commentators are asking whether this is a step backwards.
 That’s what Kauppalehti  thinks , asking if Finnish working life is so terrible after all. “A six-hour day is too much if every minute is full of anguish,” suggests the paper’s op-ed. Iltalehti, meanwhile,  takes  a more positive if slightly condescending view: Marin is right that technology could well reduce the number of working hours people perform, but 'completely wrong' in thinking this is something central government or labour organisations can mandate.
 That line, that Finland must change its tripartite labour negotiation system and move towards local pay bargaining, is a key talking point for employers’ organisations and one that may become more prominent now the union-backed SDP and Left Alliance are in government.


Finland's political parties are amenable to tighter restrictions on slot machines and gambling, according to a survey of political parties by Yle.
 The parties responded to a brief Yle survey on Wednesday after weeks of talks and  controversy over the ethics  of gambling monopoly Veikkaus' advertising practices.
 Some restrictions are already on the way, while a citizens initiative is also looking to slash the number of slot machines Veikkaus operates and restrict their locations.
 By 2022 gamblers in Finland will be required by law to digitally identify themselves to prove they are over 18 before accessing gambling services and slot machines. All parties except the populist Finns Party told Yle that they would be prepared to move that date forward in order to better monitor underage gaming.
 Minister of Local Government and Ownership Steering  Sirpa Paatero  from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said she would be working to advance the identification timetable with Veikkaus this autumn.
 "I'll be meeting with Veikkaus earlier than originally planned," Paatero said. "We need to figure out how to technically implement this ID reform."
 Veikkaus estimated that bringing in the new ID rule in 2022 would mean the monopoly would see losses of anywhere between 17 million and 170 million euros. At the same time, however, costs from addiction and problem gaming would decrease.
 Gambling in Finland is a closed shop, with only Veikkaus officially allowed to operate and all Veikkaus profits used to fund culture, sports and social policy. That means politicians are both in charge of regulating Veikkaus and dependent on it for revenue to fund government spending.
 Removal from shops
 Yle asked parties whether gambling machines should be removed entirely from shops and kiosks and moved into dedicated arcades, as a  popular citizens' initiative  with more than  28,000 signatures  is fighting for.
 Of the official parties the Green Party, Left Alliance and Christian Democrats said they would support a ban on gambling machines in any spaces other than specified gaming halls. Unregistered political group Movement Now also answered that they would be for a public ban.
 Green Party chair and Interior Minister  Maria Ohisalo  stuck to her hard line, saying that arcade gaming would be enough for non-addicted enthusiasts.
 "Designating a certain facility for these games would most likely bring problematic playing habits down. Monitoring age limits and preventing severe drawbacks would be more effective," Ohisalo said.
 How many is too many?
 The Finnish government allows gambling monopoly Veikkaus to operate a maximum of 18,600 slot machines nationwide. The current number of machines is just 100 units below that.
 Five of the registered political parties – namely the SDP, Centre Party, Finns Party, National Coalition Party (NCP) and the Swedish People's Party – declined to comment on the appropriate number of machines.
 Many politicians and citizens are calling for the removal of gambling machines from shops. Marja Väänänen / Yle
 NCP chair  Petteri Orpo  said he would leave the number of gambling units to be determined by Veikkaus; but the Left Alliance holds a stricter stance.
 "Studies show that low-income earners play these games the most, and lose the most money," said Left parliamentary group chair  Paavo Arhinmäki . "We have to seriously consider reducing the number of these games and where they should be placed."
 Harry Harkimo  from Movement Now said the correct amount of machines would be however many can be realistically monitored within designated Veikkaus gaming halls.
 Panic button, user-specific limits
 One feature of the identification process is that players can set a maximum game limit, such as how many minutes or euros he or she is allowed to spend at the slots per day or month.
 Veikkaus online gambling now includes a prominent red "panic button" that players can press if they feel they cannot stop on their own. After the button is clicked, the game will no longer respond.
 Veikkaus promised in mid-August  to establish an ethics board  to control problem gaming.
 Elderly gamblers studied
 The Turku University Hospital announced that it is researching the brains of elderly gamblers. Pension-age women are one of the main problem gambling demographics, along with young adult men.
 The university study aims to develop a new medication that could help treat gambling addiction along with talk therapy.
 The challenge in medicating a gaming addiction is that the active ingredients need to be isolated from the brain's reward system, the university said.
 Statistics from the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) show that one in five people in Finland knows someone in their close contacts who gambles too much on Veikkaus machines.


Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  has described as "worrying" US plans to locate mid-range missiles in Europe and called for dialogue on the matter. Speaking during a joint press conference with his opposite number from Moscow  Vladimir Putin  on Wednesday, Niinistö said that the situation was not governed by any agreements, something that was especially troubling from the European perspective.
 "We hope that talks aimed at [negotiating] a new agreement progress," Niinistö told journalists while referring to the US government’s decision to repudiate the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF treaty), followed by a recent test of a medium-range cruise missile weeks after scuppering the decades-old deal with Russia. Analysts worry that the breakdown of the treaty could spawn a new nuclear arms race.
 Responding a question about the US missile test from Russian media, Putin said that he was disappointed by the development, which he said threatened security and breached the terms of the INF. Putin added that the test came too soon after the treaty was abandoned on 2 August and suggested that plans for the missile launch had been developed before the US tore up the treaty.
 The Russian president said he was concerned that modified Tomahawk marine missiles could be deployed in Romania and Poland, where NATO already has missile defence systems.
 "We don’t know if the US will tell the Europeans where they are to be located. I agree with the Finnish president that we need dialogue. There is none now. We are ready to engage in dialogue with the US as well as with Europe," Putin said.
 Putin defends crackdown on protesters
 Host Niinistö trod a fine diplomatic line in response to a question from Yle’s  Sanna Uosikainen  about  the return of full Russian voting rights  in the Council of Europe and Moscow's perceived failure to comply with the Council’s mandate to honour human rights with respect to a crackdown on ongoing protests in Moscow.
 Niinistö said that it would be too easy to say that nothing similar happens in Finland. He noted that the Finnish government maintains active dialogue with civil society and that perhaps this is the reason. He also noted that membership in the Council of Europe is also important to Russian NGOs.
 Putin said that Russia respects human rights and noted that similar, sometimes more damaging demonstrations occur in other European countries. He explained that some local election candidates had been banned from standing for election because they had broken the law. He added that citizens have the right to demonstrate and noted that two protests had been lawful. However he said that if citizens did not have the required permit to demonstrate, then authorities would react the same as in any other European country.
 With respect to the Council of Europe, Putin said that if members were not satisfied with Russia, the country could pull out. But he noted that if Russia left, citizens would not have recourse to the European Court of Human Rights.
 Free electronic visas for EU citizens
 Both presidents praised the state of bilateral relations and Putin mentioned a number of initiatives where Russia and Finland would step up cooperation. Tourism was one such area where he said he hoped to see increased activity. He noted that roughly 3.5 million Russians visit Finland while one million Finns travel across the eastern border.
 He said that he hoped the number of EU visitors would rise with the introduction of free electronic visas for EU citizens hoping to visit St. Petersburg. He said work is underway to resolve issues relating to traveller identification.
 The presidents continued Putin's working day trip with a dinner at Finland's historic former fortress, Suomenlinna.


After touching down at the Helsinki Airport just shy of 4.30pm, Russian President  Vladimir Putin  finally met his host  Sauli Niinistö  at the Presidential Palace in downtown Helsinki just after 5.00pm, around two hours behind schedule.
 The heads exchanged pleasantries as their meeting began, with Putin saying via an interpreter that bilateral relations between the two countries had developed positively.
 The Russian President’s arrival in Finland resulted in a major security operation in which the route between the airport and the city centre was closed to allow his motorcade to proceed unfettered.
 Tourists and other members of the public were prohibited from the market square area near the Presidential Palace in downtown Helsinki. Laura Hyyti / Yle
 Helsinki police also said on Twitter that mass transit had been suspended on Mannerheimintie, while the market square opposite the official presidential residence had been cleared out and sealed off to the public, catching many tourists off-guard.
 Activists with a message for Putin
 Meanwhile NGOs and activists took advantage of Putin’s visit to the Finnish capital to send messages about the country’s human rights record, among other things.
 Human rights organisation Amnesty said it wanted to use the opportunity to raise the issue of free elections while Putin was in Helsinki.
 Amnesty protesters with a message for the Russian President, "Putin, why are you afraid?" Laura Hyyti / Yle
 Three young activists,  Jasmiina Salin ,  Iida Niva  and  Maria Kiiskinen  of the National Coalition Party’s youth wing said that they wanted to draw attention to concerns about democracy and minority rights in Russia.
 Meanwhile demonstrators representing another organisation, Fee Russia (Vapaa Venäjä) called for the arrest of the Russian president.
 Members of the National Coalition Party youth wing turned out to see Vladimir Putin. Laura Hyyti / Yle
 On Tuesday President Niinistö told an annual gathering of Finnish ambassadors that he might raise the issue of ongoing demonstrations in Moscow with Putin.
 Protesters have been picketing and calling for free elections, following a decision to ban some opposition figures from local elections.
 Niinistö said that there are no special frictions in Finnish-Russian bilateral relations and he stressed the importance of maintaining open discussion channels.
 Niinistö and Putin arrive at Suomenlinna for dinner on Wednesday evening. Jussi Nukari / Lehtikuva
 The presidents and their staff completed the working day trip with dinner at the historic former island fortress, Suomenlinna.


The country's most widely-read daily Helsingin Sanomat  discusses  Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö 's  meeting with Russian President  Vladimir Putin  yesterday in Helsinki. The National Defence University's Russian security expert  Katri Pynnönniemi  called Niinistö out for "not questioning any of Putin's interpretations" in his remarks.
 "In my opinion, the most important thing was that Putin got all of his key talking points across. The thrust of his message matched Russia's long-term communication strategy which says that the US is making decisions over Europe's head, without consideration for the interests of its allies," she told the paper.
 She said President Niinistö could have challenged many of Putin's comments about the US' lack of communication with EU allies about its missile technology or US involvement in the European energy market – the latter of which conveniently painted the Russian-backed  Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline  as better-suited to European interests.
 "He [Niinistö] surely could have said that the relationship between European and Nato countries and the US is a good one, or that Europeans still make their own, independent decisions," Pynnönniemi said.
 Another missed opportunity in her eyes concerned the subject of  a crackdown on demonstrations for free elections in Moscow . At this juncture, the Finnish President commented that it would be "too easy to say that nothing similar happens in Finland".
 "Niinistö's criticism on this point was quite cloaked in that [...] there is no way you can compare the Finnish political system to what is happening in Russia right now," she told HS.
 Scrambled GPS and a downed police site
 Finland's tabloids talk about some of the knock-on effects the working visit had in Helsinki, in addition to the enhanced security presence and the  closure of streets, markets and harbours . Ilta-Sanomat reports that  GPS systems were apparently jammed  for about a half-hour around the time of Putin's  late arrival  at roughly 4:30 pm.
 Readers told IS that while Putin's motorcade was en route from the Helsinki Airport to the Presidential Palace, map services on their phones provided inaccurate location data. One man said he checked both his work and personal phone at his home in the Helsinki district of Viikki, only to have one show that he was sitting in the neighbouring city of Espoo and the other pinpoint his location in the district of Itäkeskus, in eastern Helsinki. He said that once Putin had arrived at his destination downtown, the services once again worked accurately.
 The incident is not the first of its kind in Finland, as air navigation authorities detected GPS jamming in  November 2018 during NATO exercises  in northern Finland and Norway. Norwegian authorities said at the time that their data indicated that the signal disruption was coming from Russia.
 Meanwhile tabloid Iltalehti reports that the  website of the Finnish Police crashed  on Wednesday evening while the Russian leader was in Helsinki, although "there is no information yet if the disturbance is associated with Putin's visit".
 Worried about the planet's future
 The Lahti-based newspaper Etelä-Suomen Sanomat reports on a  poll assessing climate change anxiety  in Finland's population.
 Some 27 percent of the over 2,000 respondents to the Sitra-commissioned poll said anxiety is "very or somewhat good" descriptor of their feelings about climate change. For the subset of people between the age of 15 and 30, this percentage rose to 38 percent, or more than one in three.
 Finns in the survey also reported feeling frustration, inadequacy, powerlessness and hope in the face of climate change. 60 percent said they have noted scepticism of global warming in their social circles, but less than half a percentage point said they have encountered outright climate change denial in Finland.
 The poll also inquired after people's  happiness levels . 55 percent said they felt very or somewhat happy, with about a quarter saying they were "a little or not at all happy".


The youth wings of several political parties say pensions should be cut in the name of generational equality.
 The divide between young and old is raising debate among Finland's political youth groups. Young adults are questioning whether comfortable pensions will be out of their reach as they struggle to  find steady jobs  and  get a foot on the housing ladder .
 This summer the new government of PM  Antti Rinne   announced it would raise minimum pensions , a key election promise made by his Social Democratic Party (SDP). But that hasn't stopped the youth wings of the Greens, Centre — and even the SDP — from questioning the sustainability of the system as a whole.
 In Finland, any discussion pertaining to lowering pensions has long been seen as political suicide as retirees are the country's most active voters.
 Breaking a 'holy' promise
 Meddling with pension payments is an unfathomable idea to many in Finland, but the Green youths told Yle that many young people have lost their faith in the system.
 "We're interpreting pensions from a 1960s legal perspective which sees retirements — a social benefit — as personal property," Green Youth chair  Amanda Pasanen  told Yle.
 "We should radically minimise the cost of maintaining pensions for the system to remain sustainable and fair for future generations,"  Sameli Sivonen , Pasanen's co-chair added.
 The Green Youths point out that the Finnish and Swedish systems rely on opposite approaches for shoring up money in the face of dwindling state coffers. While Finland has resorted to raising the level of statutory pension contributions from wage earners, Sweden's response has been to cut pensions. The Swedish system includes a 'brake' mechanism on index adjustments that triggers when the economy weakens.
 Suvi Mäkeläinen  of the Finnish Centre Party Youth has also come out in favour of a 'brake' mechanism, saying it would mainly affect those with large pensions and not retirees on the lower end of the scale.
 Vesa Rantahalvari  of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) said that while slowing down index adjustments could be a good way to shore up funds, he said his organisation is primarily focused on raising Finland's  falling birthrate , increasing  work-based immigration  and  improving employment  overall.
 Meanwhile  Sinikka Näätsaari  who heads pension policy matters at the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) pointed out that  recent retirement age hikes  have increased the pool of people paying into the system to ease the state's burden.
 But  Mikkel Näkkäläjärvi  of the SDP's youth organisation is not convinced that increasing the contribution base will be enough.
 "People born during or after the 1970s are definitely not winners in the system," he said. "The next pension reform will have to address generational equality."


From across the political spectrum, Finnish politicians voiced concern over the wildfires raging the Amazon rainforests of Brazil.
 Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  called the fires "a threat to our whole planet, not just to Brazil or South America."
 "When it comes to climate change, the situation is extremely serious and we need to act immediately," he said in a statement on Friday, pledging to discuss the situation within the European Council.
 "We must find out whether the Europeans have something to offer to Brazil to help prevent this kind of fires in the future. It goes without saying that in terms of climate change the world cannot sustain such fires...I am truly worried about the attitude Brazil seems to have adopted right now regarding its own forests. Brazil should do all it takes to end the fires that are a danger to our whole civilisation," he added.
 The Amazon produces an estimated one fifth of the world's oxygen, making it a crucial player in efforts to limit climate change.
 Brazilian beef ban?
 Finland, which holds the EU Council presidency, said the EU should consider banning Brazilian beef in response to the devastation caused by the fires, widely attributed to the clearing of land for farming of soybeans and beef.
 “Finance Minister  Mika Lintilä  condemns the destruction of Amazon rainforests and proposes that the EU and Finland urgently look into the option of banning the import of Brazilian beef,” he said in a statement released in Finnish only on Friday afternoon.
 He added that he was "prepared to raise the issue for discussion with my EU finance minister colleagues when they arrive in Helsinki in September if progress is not made before that," he said.
 "We should think broadly about various measures through which we could bring pressure in this acute situation, both trade policy measures and certainly also diplomatic means. And to think together at the EU level as well, and for that reason of course we're calling the EU together for a meeting," Environment Minister  Krista Mikkonen  told Yle on Friday.
 Meetings this weekend
 European Commission VP  Jyrki Katainen  told the daily Helsingin Sanomat that he planned to find out on Friday what kinds of measures the EU could implement. According to the paper, he plans to call an emergency meeting of the Commission to discuss the issue on Saturday morning.
 Meanwhile French President  Emmanuel Macron  and German Chancellor  Angela Merkel  say the crisis which must be discussed at the G7 summit that begins in France on Saturday.
 Petteri Orpo , chair of Finland's opposition National Coalition Party, posted a tweet saying that "the destruction of the Amazon rainforests must stop. The EU must take its place at the forefront of the work against climate change and condemn Brazil's actions. This madness threatens the world's valuable carbon sinks."
 Protests and coffee beans
 Meanwhile as in several other capitals, the climate group Extinction Rebellion organised a small demonstration outside the Brazilian Embassy in Helsinki's Kaivopuisto district on Friday morning.
 Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) says its satellite data shows an 85 percent increase in wildfires compared to the same period of last year.
 Environmental NGOs says that President  Jair Bolsonaro , a long time climate change denier, has encouraged clearing activities, while he has accused them of lighting the fires themselves. On Thursday, he conceded that farmers could be behind the fires.
 Bolsonaro has repeatedly called for opening the Amazon to business interests, to allow mining, agricultural and logging companies to exploit its natural resources.
 While Brazil is Finland's largest trading partner in South America, trade between the two countries is relatively small, accounting for less than one percent of Finnish imports. Bilateral trade totalled less than a billion euros last year.
 Finland mainly imports pulp and food products from Brazil – including less than five million euros' worth each of beef and soybeans annually, along with some 70 million euros' worth of coffee beans.


The Christian Democrat party conference re-elected current leader  Sari Essayah  on Saturday, four days after she announced the success of an operation to remove a cancerous tumor.
 “Lots of party members have expressed the hopes that I might be able to continue,” said Essayah. “Of course in this situation I consider first and foremost my own recovery and whether I could continue in this role.”
 On Wednesday Essayah had announced that the  treatment for breast cancer  had been successful and the cancer had not spread.
 Earlier in the month the former world champion race walker had announced her illness, a two-week spell of sick leave and said she was considering stepping down as party leader.
 Alternative government
 Although she faces further treatment in the autumn, the success of her initial treatment meant she decided to put herself forward for another two-year term as leader of the party.
 At the age of 52 Essayah is the youngest of the party’s five MPs. At the last election the party received 3.9 percent of the vote.
 In Oulu she said that the parliamentary arithmetic would allow for a more conservative government to be formed if the Centre Party switched sides.
 “Together with the Centre Party the three opposition parties could form a majority government supported by 113 MPs,” said Essayah. “This is surely noted in government meetings and government parties’ offices.”
 The current government led by SDP chair  Antti Rinne  and composed of the Left Alliance, SDP, Swedish People’s Party and Centre Party has the support of 117 MPs.
 Story continues after photo
 Tiina Kokko / Yle
 Essayah also took the opportunity to comment on the  ongoing police investigation  into former leader  Päivi Räsänen  over comments in June criticizing Pride week, and particularly the Finnish Lutheran church’s participation in it.
 “As a party we don’t handle church business, but Päivi has done so in her role [as a member of the church],” said Essayah. “She has exercised her freedom of speech and her freedom of conviction, which has traditionally been very broad in Finland and that’s the viewpoint from which she has acted.”
 “We have wanted to emphasise the importance of freedom of religion in Finnish society,” said Essayah. “For example if you think about marriage, it is important to us that parishes can themselves decide on their understanding of marriage based among other things on who can marry and who cannot.
 Finland passed a law allowing same-sex marriage in 2015, and the law took effect in 2017. The Lutheran Church, however, still holds that marriage is between a man and a woman and does not recognize gay marriage, although some priests have blessed gay unions.


Minister of Agriculture and Forestry  Jari Leppä  is calling for Finland to stop importing soybeans within the next five years.
 In a blog post on his personal website on Tuesday, the Centre Party MP argued that imported soybean meal would be unnecessary if domestic production of broad beans (also known as fava beans) were to be expanded to 80,000 hectares,  up from 22,000 hectares  (data from 2017).
 "This expanded amount would account for about four percent of Finland's farmland," Leppä said. A total of 7 percent of Finland's land mass is used for farming.
 Leppä's special adviser  Satu Haapaniemi  told Yle that the minister's aim is to primarily stop using soy in Finland as animal fodder; originally Leppä did not differentiate between the different uses of the soy bean.
 Late on Tuesday he specified that the use of soy for human consumption should also be curbed.
 "There are all sorts of different non-animal foods these days. We are hoping for innovations that could replace soy in all uses as far as possible. But the main message here is the animal feed," Leppä said.
 Ecology first
 In his original blog post Leppä notes that imports of soy for livestock feed have risen significantly in the past decade. Most of it comes from the US as well as Brazil, whose leadership recently came under international criticism for encouraging the razing of rainforests for new farmlands.
 Leppä asserts that Brazilian soybeans do not meet accountability criteria or Finland's target of carbon neutrality by 2035. Therefore he argues that Finland should be essentially soy-free by 2025.
 He notes that soy is an important source of protein for animal feed, but that the Finnish feed industry has worked hard to replace it with domestic raw materials such as oats, peas and rapeseed.
 Soy still fed to pigs and chickens
 Finnish milk and beef production is already nearly soy-free, says Leppä, who is a long-time beef and dairy farmer himself.
 In pork production, soy accounts for about six percent of fodder,  Marjukka Manninen , an expert at the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK), told the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat last week. Meanwhile about 15 percent of feed for broiler chickens comes from soy, with the rest mostly domestic grains.
 "This is the right direction when we think about climate change as well as changing food trends. We have very great potential in this protein-rich domestic crops," Leppä writes.
 He says it is realistic that for instance 80,000 hectares of broad bean cultivation could replace all imports of soybean meal, noting that this would be less than four percent of Finland's cultivated land.
 One of the few holdovers from the previous Centre-led cabinet, Leppä has been Minister of Agriculture and Forestry since May 2017. He has been a beef and dairy farmer in South Savo since 1980 and an MP since 1999, earning the dubious distinction of being the MP with the highest earnings from agricultural subsidies for several years running, to the tune of 120,000 euros in 2016.


Finnish Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  has said that moves to suspend the UK Parliament means that lawmakers may not be able to prevent the country from exiting the EU without an agreement to cover future relations.
 Rinne was responding to UK PM  Boris Johnson ’s request to  Queen Elizabeth  this week to prorogue parliament.
 "Johnson’s message yesterday is that he has got enough of a signal from his meeting with [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel to focus on taking matters forward in his own parliament. But today the message came that that initiative had been deferred. It tells me that Johnson’s actions are very contradictory," Rinne said on Wednesday, adding that the situation now looks worse than one day earlier.
 "It definitely increases the risk of a no-deal Brexit," he added.
 Analysts believe that if the UK crashes out of the EU, it would complicate movement between Britain and mainland Europe. It could also affect the economy and make the availability of medicines problematic.
 Given Finland’s presidency of the EU Council, Rinne said he has offered his assistance in ensuring that the UK does not leave the EU without a deal. However Rinne said he now has to wait and see.
 "At the moment the situation seems chaotic. We are awaiting clarification from the UK [to see] if we can somehow assist," he added.
 Haavisto: No-deal Brexit could bring many surprises
 Meanwhile Foreign Minister  Pekka Haavisto  offered comments on the current situation from a Greens parliamentary group meeting in Hämeenlinna.
 "Of course from Finland’s perspective it’s important that Brexit is orderly, however it happens. As the holder of the EU presidency, we naturally hope that it will happen with an EU agreement, to regulate relations between the EU and Britain," he remarked.
 Haavisto pointed out that a disorderly Brexit could mean many surprises in the future.
 Story continues after photo.
 Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto at the Greens parliamentary group meeting in Hämeenlinna on Wednesday Antti Aimo-Koivisto / Lehtikuva
 "A no-deal Brexit involves many risk factors and it could be bad for everyone economically. In the days [after Brexit] we don’t know how the movement of goods and people will work, what will be the status of EU workers in Britain and the Northern Ireland border question is also difficult. There would be much to negotiate after a no-deal Brexit," he continued.
 Haavisto said that he believed that Brexit will also be on the agenda during unofficial meetings of EU foreign ministers at the end of this week.
 The minister said that Finland’s direct message to the UK is that regardless of whether or not the country remains in the EU, bilateral relations must continue, even if only because many UK citizens live in Finland and vice versa.


State ownership steering minister  Sirpa Paatero  told the paper Demokraatti on Friday that government decide to review dividends and bonuses paid by national mail carrier Posti Group.
 In an interview with the Social Democratic Party organ, Paatero said that the firm’s decision to slash workers’ pay felt bad. On Thursday Posti announced a new pay structure for 700 packaging and e-commerce workers that would reduce their base salaries while providing incentive pay for productivity, customer service and work quality. The new system is due to begin in November.
 The postal workers’ union PAU said the new pay structure would effectively gouge the affected employees’ pay by an average of 30 percent, and in some cases up to 50 percent.
 The average monthly salary of a postal worker is 2,200 euros. A 30-percent salary reduction would mean losing 660 euros every month. Workers  walked off the job on Friday  as the union announced a strike to protest the pay reforms.
 Story continues after photo.
 State ownership steering minister Sirpa Paatero. Antti Aimo-Koivisto / Lehtikuva
 Paatero told Demokraatti that Posti’s packaging and e-commerce operations have had to compete with international stock listed companies. She added that these competitors operate with more affordable industrial union pay contracts, in turn putting pressure on Posti.
 Posti board member and former SDP MP  Satu Taavitsenainen  wrote in her blog on Friday that the government could decide not to take dividends paid to it by Posti. As a state-owned company, Posti pays dividends to its sole shareholder, the state. Earlier this year the company reported  a slight increase in second-quarter revenues  despite slowing mail volumes.
 "It’s always possible to discuss the level of dividends [paid] and in this case as well it can be discussed with the company," Paatero said in the Demokraatti interview in response to Taavitsenainen’s suggestion.
 On Friday business weekly Talouselämä reported that in four years, Posti chief executive  Heikki Malinen ’s annual salary including bonuses had risen by 65 percent to 990,000 euros. That amounts to a monthly pay packet of about 82,500 euros.
 The business paper also noted that the management team’s pay had also increased significantly during the same period. Paatero said that it would be possible to discuss bonuses paid to top management, including in what situations and on what basis they are distributed.
 PAU: Management salaries untouchable
 Meanwhile PAU chair  Heidi Nieminen  told Yle that to her ears, Malinen’s pay sounded generous. However she said it is not for her to condemn other people’s salaries, regardless of how large they might be.
 She added that what she could not understand is that some in Posti believe that the lowest-paid workers are earning too much and should have their wages lowered 30 percent.
 The union leader said she would like to see Posti’s efforts to reduce costs reflected in measures that affect others apart from regular or supervisory staff.
 She pointed out that during employee-employer negotiations last spring to agree on cost reduction measures, it appeared that while the company was ready to cut spending on staff, management was not prepared to similar savings measures.
 "In the negotiations we raised [the question that] if we start saving on employment contract spending, would the management commit to ensuring that the resulting savings would not result in bigger bonuses for managers. Posti told us that they could not commit to that and that it could not be discussed in the talks," Nieminen disclosed.
 Yle was unable to reach Posti board chair  Markku Pohjola  for comment on Friday.
 Edit: Updated at 2.13pm to remove reference to Posti as a stock-listed company.


The prospect of a change of leadership within the agrarian Centre Party has done little to boost support for the party, according to the latest poll by national broadcaster Yle. The survey of voter approval shows backing for the Centre led by interim chair and former Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä , dipping below 12 percent of support last month.
 Meanwhile the nationalist opposition Finns Party was the country's most popular in August, according to the poll. Some 20.6 percent of respondents said they support the Finns Party, giving the populists a three-percentage-point lead over the second-most popular, the centre-right National Coalition Party (17.4%), which came in second place, followed by Prime Minister  Antti Rinne 's Social Democratic Party (SDP), which received support from 16.9 percent of respondents.
 Tough times ahead for new Centre leader
 The Centre Party, which led the previous three-party administration, suffered severe losses in April's parliamentary elections and in Yle's August poll, support for the party fell by more than two percentage points to below 12 percent.
 After the election, former-PM Sipilä  claimed responsibility  for the party's losses and stepped down as chair. In August, the two candidates duelling for that post - economic affairs minister  Katri Kulmuni  and defence minister  Antti Kaikkonen  travelled around the country making their cases to lead the party.
 The new party leader will be chosen this Saturday at an annual congress in Kouvola, in southeast Finland.
 The Centre holds the Minister of Finance's portfolio, but that has not appeared to help the party's approval ratings. Instead the post may be more of a burden as prospects for economic growth weaken and possible future tax increases or spending cuts loom.
 Big issues ahead for SDP
 After a June dip in ratings, the SDP saw a small uptick in the latest poll. At the same time the Greens' support fell after a summertime boost, as did the Left Alliance's figures.
 Finland's EU presidency has dominated the first months of Rinne's administration, but the big questions on the economy and employment are directly ahead in early autumn.
 The speed at which Rinne and Minister of Local Government and Ownership Steering,  Sirpa Paatero , reacted to recent outrage over national mail carrier  Posti's salary policies  is also possibly a sign of increasing pressure ahead of challenging job market talks in the autumn.
 The SDP (polling at 16.9 percent support) has yet to climb back to its post-parliamentary election approval rating of 17.7 percent.
 Rinne in opposition cross hairs
 Analysts say the NCP, polling in second place, has a learning curve ahead. The party has not been in the opposition for 12 years, and there are only a few MPs who would even remember the party line from those days.
 NCP chair  Petteri Orpo  was first elected to Parliament in 2007, while the parliamentary group's chair  Kai Mykkänen  has been an MP for only two terms. The party is taking aim at Rinne's economic and employment policies, and is even now preparing its first interpellation on the new administration's employment strategy after the mid-September budget session.
 Meanwhile, Finns Party chair  Jussi Halla-aho  has returned as an MP following five years as an MEP. Halla-aho resigned as chair of the Administration Committee in 2012 after contesting a conviction for hate speech. He declined a position as head of the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, saying it would interfere with his Finns party chairmanship.
 Out of the 2,440 respondents to the survey, a total of 1,683 people divulged their party affiliation. The margin of error in the survey, carried out by pollster Taloustutkimus, was two percentage points in either direction.


At a press conference on Friday, Finnish Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  described the current situation regarding Brexit as a "mess" and said that the EU is not prepared to re-open the withdrawal agreement it negotiated with the UK last year.
 Speaking alongside European Parliament President  David Sassoli  at Helsinki's House of the Estates on Friday, Rinne declined to answer directly when asked whether the EU would agree to another extension if Britain asks for one.
 "I would say that the situation in Britain is quite [a] mess now. And we don't know what is happening there," he replied.
 "It seems very obvious that we are not yet in Brexit with agreement. And we have here in Finland and also in the European Union level done work that we can manage that kind of situation also. And that means that we are ready for that kind of Brexit also. I hope that they can reach a situation where this can be solved so that there is no mess, but it seems not possible now," Rinne said in English.
 "Open to discussing any initiative"
 Replying in Italian, Sassoli said that "there is a lot of unity between the 27 member states to defend the deal, which we believe is the best deal possible. Of course we're open to discussing any initiative that may come forward."
 "It's painful for us if the UK leaves the EU but if they're going to leave without a deal, then someone has to take responsibility for that and for the fact that in Ireland quite naturally a border will have to be put up. There is unity on the deal that we found. However we are open to hearing further proposals that may be put on the table," Sassoli added.
 In response, Rinne said: "We're not ready to open this agreement we have negotiated between Britain and European Union."
 Climate focus in talks
 The two also returned several times to the issue of climate and emissions reductions, which Finland has set as the main theme of its European Council Presidency.
 "We have a broad consensus on the need to [have] a strong emphasis on climate actions in the EU budget. I want to highlight the EU global climate leadership course for committing to climate neutrality by 2050," Rinne said.
 Sassoli noted that "there are urgencies in that the general public is calling for major change when it comes to climate policy. We're going to do more. And we are going to have to be able to rise to the challenge of the threat that it poses," he said.
 "The parliament has indicated a number of very ambitious objectives. A 55-percent cut in CO2 emissions is of course a huge challenge and so we'd very much like to see how the Commission intends to move forward with that...we've put our faith in these objectives and we hope that they will be kept too."
 Climate, sustainable growth and the EU budget were the main topics earlier on Friday morning when Rinne and Sassoli met with the chairs of the European Parliament’s political groups and ministers from Rinne's centre-left cabinet.
 Sassoli, a centre-left MEP since 2009, was elected as President of the European Parliament in early July, at the same time as Finland took over the six-month rotating presidency.


The minister in charge of overseeing state-owned companies,  Sirpa Paatero , says she will look into Posti management's golf club membership shares.
 The tabloid Iltalehti revealed that in 2015, the state postal firm spent nearly 30,000 euros on a membership stake in the tony Sarfvik Golf Club in Kirkkonummi, some 20 km west of Helsinki.
 According to the paper, the purchase of a membership card for Finland's most expensive golf club was proposed by Posti CEO  Heikki Malinen . He has been under fire in recent weeks over his generous remuneration in a time when the company is trying to slash jobs and wages.
 The paper reports that the country club expenditure caused consternation within Posti, as it came just when the firm was launching redundancy talks that led to more than 300 employees losing their jobs.
 "It doesn't sound very good"
 "One has to admit that it doesn't sound very good," Paatero said on Friday in Parliament.
 Paatero questioned spending on golf fees while simultaneously carrying on tough co-determination negotiations and job cuts. She said that she would not be able to analyse management golf benefits on Friday, but that they would be included in an overall re-evaluation of executive remuneration at the state-owned firm.
 "It's essential that I get information and ask the company what this is all about," she said.
 Posti's revenue has slumped in recent years as many consumers opt for electronic versions instead of having letters and newspapers delivered to their mailboxes, and it faces more competition for package deliveries.
 On Tuesday, Paatero announced that after talks with Posti, it agreed to reconsider management salaries, bonuses and benefits, and to  suspend a plan  to force some workers to accept much weaker working contracts. The postal union, which estimated that would have cut their wages by 30-50 percent, then agreed to cut short a strike.
 3 shares at posh Espoo club
 According to Iltalehti, Posti previously owned three membership shares in another prestigious golf club, Master Golf on Lake Bodom in northern Espoo. However the firm sold these when it bought the Sarfvik share. Posti told the paper that it sold the Master Golf shares because it was difficult to reserve tee times at the venue.
 Paatero, a long-time parliamentarian from Prime Minister  Antti Rinne 's Social Democratic Party, took over as Minister of Local Government and Ownership Steering in June. This week she also announced changes to the board of directors of the  state-owned gambling agency Veikkaus  amid claims that it has failed to tackle problem gambling.


A recent survey of the Finnish public from the country's most widely-read daily suggests that President  Sauli Niinistö  is currently enjoying unprecedented levels of support in Finland.
 Over 90 percent of respondents to the late-August Kantar TNS survey said they felt Niinistö had succeeded in his presidential tasks at least somewhat satisfactorily. Close to half answered that they were very satisfied with his performance.
 Sauli Niinistö  has seen public support for his presidency rise steadily since he was  first elected  president in 2012. The former conservative National Coalition Party (NCP) chair and finance minister was re-elected for a second six-year term in 2018 after a  landslide vote .
 The poll indicates that Niinistö enjoys the support of the Finnish public across party lines. In fact, 63 percent of respondents who identified as Social Democratic Party supporters felt Niinistö was doing a very good job, followed by 62 percent of Centre Party adherents, and 59 percent of NCP supporters.
 Just three percent of the 1,005 people participating in the poll gave the president a "somewhat or very poor" grade. The margin of error for the survey results is three percentage points in either direction.


Delegates to an extraordinary meeting of Finland's Centre Party have elected  Katri Kulmuni  has their new party chair. Kulmuni defeated the only other candidate for the position, defence minister  Antti Kaikkonen , by gaining 1,092 votes compared to Kaikkonen's 829. She takes over the reins of the party from  Juha Sipilä , who decided to step down from the position after the party was soundly defeated in April's general elections.
 Kulmuni said told the gathered crowd that the work would start now to change the agrarian-backed Centre Party from a "10 percent party to a 20 percent party". She will serve as the Centre Party chair until Sipilä's term would have ended in the summer of 2020, when the party congress was originally set to choose a leader.
 Before the vote, MP  Joonas Könttä  from the central Finland city of Jyväskylä explained why he was planning to support Kulmuni as the party's next leader.
 "The Centre Party looks towards the future from a difficult position, and I believe that Katri is the best choice for us moving forward. She is modern, very competent, and a very centrist choice. I think she also appeals to new people," he said.
 Sipilä's farewell address focused on achievements
 Outgoing chair Juha Sipilä spoke to the assembly, pointing out that his austerity-minded government coalition created 14,000 new jobs during his term in office. He told the gathered delegates that he would have liked to continue as the party chair, but the Centre Party's  trouncing at the ballot box  this spring – resulting in the loss of 18 parliamentary seats – made it clear to him that it was best to step down.
 Kulmuni will have her work cut out for her, as support for the party fell to 13.8 percent in the last election, putting the once-on-top Centre Party in fourth position behind the nationalist Finns Party, the centre-right National Coalition Party and the left-leaning Social Democrats. Yle's  latest assessment of political allegiances in September  suggests that support has fallen even further, to 11.6 percent of the population.
 The next elections in Finland won't be until the municipal elections scheduled for spring 2021. In the 2017 municipal elections under Sipilä's leadership, the Centre Party gained 17.5 percent of the vote.


Jutta Urpilainen , a former finance minister in the  Jyrki Katainen  administration, has been nominated for a European Commission post as commissioner responsible for international partnerships. The portfolio is a new position created by EU Commission president-designate  Ursula von der Leyen .
 Commenting on the appointment, Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  said that Urpilainen’s position is "extremely important in the current global situation."
 "In a situation in which a rule-based world is being challenged, trade wars are ongoing and when peace must be brokered, then I think this portfolio is extremely important. It is also important from an economic perspective," Rinne noted.
 Finland was vying for an influential post in development, training or defence and Rinne discussed the prospects with von der Leyen over the weekend.
 "When I heard about the details of the position I was very satisfied. It’s right for Jutta and for Finland," the PM added.
 Rime said that he was not disappointed that the role of economy commissioner went to the Italian  Paolo Gentiloni  and described the line-up of prospective commissioners as balanced.
 Focus on Africa
 Urpilainen was the first female chair of the Social Democratic Party, which she led from 2008 to 2014 before relinquishing her role as finance minister when she was toppled from the chairmanship by current party leader Rinne. Urpilainen told Yle that she was pleased with the nomination.
 "I am very satisfied with the assignment. It involves both economic and external relations," she remarked, adding that she would leave it to others to assess the prestige of the post.
 "I have the Commission’s largest division – foreign relations – at my disposal. As an administrative arm it is the third largest in the EU budget. The main focus is development issues, in other words where we can support reaching sustainable development goals by the year 2030," she commented.
 The former school teacher said that developing a new "Africa strategy" would be an important part of her role.
 "We must build a new strategic partnership with Africa in which the private sector is also actively involved in creating investments, jobs and permanent wellbeing."
 The commissioner-in-waiting said that the international partnerships role will tackle major generational issues such as climate change, new security threats, the growth of inequality and a crisis of democracy. She noted that the challenge of immigration was that EU member states had not been able to implement agreed measures.
 "What is essential is that we address the root causes of immigration and create a situation where people do not see their only hope as leaving their home countries," she declared.
 New Commission portfolio
 Commission president-designate Ursula von der Leyen said that it is important for the EU to invest in neighbouring territories. She referred to Urpilainen’s work as finance minister, as a member of Parliament’s foreign affairs committee and as a special peace envoy, a role that she performed between 2017 and 2019 during her term as an SDP MP. At the time she visited countries such as Ethiopia.
 The current EU Commission doesn’t have a separate portfolio for international partnerships and the new role will place special emphasis on relations with Africa. According to von der Leyen, one aspect Urpilainen’s mission will be to broker partnership agreements with migrants’ countries of origin as well as transit countries as part of the new Africa strategy she will design.
 "By this von der Leyen is sending the message that there is a crucial connection between Africa and Europe. To influence migration so that it’s on a sustainable level in the future we must be able to improve living conditions in countries of origin," Urpilainen declared.
 The incoming commissioner said that this approach would include conflict resolution as well as investment and job creation.
 Von der Leyen noted that a separate portfolio with responsibility for Africa had been proposed at some point, but it had been set aside because the African Union, an organisation comprising 55 continental member states, would have seen it as a problem.
 The commissioner nominees will next face scrutiny by the relevant committees of the European Parliament before the body greenlights the appointments. Once that happens, the European Council will formally appoint the next European Commission, including the president (von der Leyen) as well as all of the vice presidents and commissioners.


When the Centre Party elected  Katri Kulmuni   as its new leader last weekend , Finnish political history turned a new page: now a majority of party chairs are women. Of the eight parties in Parliament, five have female leaders.
 On Tuesday yet another glass ceiling was shattered as  Jutta Urpilainen  became the first Finnish woman to be  an official nominee to the European Commission . She was previously the first woman to serve as finance minister and to lead the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
 Women's progress to the top level of Finnish politics has been slow. In 1907 Finland became one of the world's first countries to allow women in Parliament, electing 19 female MPs that year, while Finland was still a Grand Duchy under the Russian Tsar. The country gained independence a decade later but it was not until the 1990s that women began to hold powerful political positions.
 Still, female progress in politics has been relatively fast compared to that in the business sector, for instance, according to  Ilkka Ruostetsaari , professor of politics at the University of Tampere.
 "Women form a larger share of the political elite than any other elite groups. Politics has been a more open channel for women to rise," he tells Yle.
 Women are still under-represented in upper-level corporate management, Ruostetsaari notes. And employment roles are still often split by gender.
 Glass ceiling breakers Finnish female firsts Jutta Urpilainen (SDP): European Commissioner-designate 2019 -, Finance Minister 2011-14, SDP chair 2008-14 Tarja Halonen (SDP): President 2000-12, Foreign Minister 1995-2000 Anneli Jäätteenmäki (Centre): Prime Minister April-June 2003, Centre chair 2002-03 Riitta Uosukainen (NCP): Speaker of Parliament 1994 - 2003 Elisabeth Rehn (SPP): Defence Minister 1990-94 Heidi Hautala (Greens): Parliamentary group chair 1987-91 Helvi Sipilä (Lib): Presidential candidate 1982, UN Assistant Secretary-General 1972-1980 Miina Sillanpää (SDP): Government minister 1926-27 Sirkka Hämäläinen: Bank of Finland Governor 1992-98 Riitta Prusti (SDP): labour union leader (TVK) So far no women have served as: Commander of the Finnish Defence Forces Chair of any employers' confederation Archbishop of either state-supported church
 "We still have a lot of sectors in working life that are dominated by either men or women. So there is certainly plenty of work to be done to advance equality," Kulmuni says.
 NCP and Finns parties stick to male leaders
 All five female chairs have been elected by party members at large. Besides Kulmuni, the include three ministers in the current cabinet: Minister of Justice  Anna-Maja Henriksson  of the Swedish People's Party, Education Minister  Li Andersson  of the Left Alliance and Interior Minister  Maria Ohisalo  of the Greens.  Sari Essayah  is chair of the small opposition Christian Democrats.
 Meanwhile the two main opposition parties are the only ones that have never had female leaders: the nationalist Finns Party and the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP).
 "Of course different issues make it onto the agenda when people with very different backgrounds make it into Parliament," says Ohisalo. She points out that people with disabilities, for instance, are still under-represented in decision-making processes.
 According to Andersson, "there is still work to be done on traditional equality issues such as domestic violence, segregated workplaces, wage equality and family leave."
 Centre boasts several firsts
 Ohisalo's and Andersson's parties, the Greens and the Left Alliance, have had several female leaders, as has the Centre.
 "It's particularly positive that Kulmuni has also become a party chair. The Centre has had female leaders, although from a gender perspective it is a more conservative party," says  Johanna Kantola , professor of gender studies at the University of Tampere.
 Indeed, the Centre was the first of the traditional 'big three' parties to have a woman as leader when  Anneli Jäätteenmäki  took over in 2002. She went on to become the first female prime minister, but her term was cut short by a scandal over leaked documents after just two months. The only other female PM, the Centre's  Mari Kiviniemi , only held office for a year.
 In 2007, Centre prime minister  Matti Vanhanen 's second cabinet became Finland's  first with a female majority . The current government, led by SDP chair  Antti Rinne , includes 11 women and eight men.
 Three of the parties in the five-party coalition are led by women under the age of 35. Kantola says this a positive development as it shatters and expands Finns' images of young women.
 The share of women in Parliament has risen from 9.5 percent in 1907 to 47 percent in the current legislature, elected in April.
 "But as long as there are not as many women as men in Parliament, we still have work to do," says Kulmuni.


On Friday Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  began the second day of a two-day official visit to Ukraine.
 The day before, Niinistö met with Ukraine President  Volodymyr Zelensky  for the first time at Mariyinsky Palace, the president's official ceremonial residence in Kiev.
 At a joint press conference on Thursday, Zelelnsky told reporters he had warned Niinistö about Russia's Nord Stream 2 natural gas undersea pipeline project, which is still under construction.
 When completed, possibly by the end of this year,  Nord Stream 2  will carry Russian LNG to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea. Several firms are involved in the international, Russian-led project, including Finnish energy company Fortum.
 "Nord Stream 2 is a threat to all of Europe," Zelensky said he told the Finnish president, noting that it is important to Ukraine that its international partners do not falter in implementing sanctions against Russia.
 Meanwhile, Niinistö said he had brought greetings to Ukraine from the Finnish people.
 "We support you and are in solidarity," Niinistö said.
 On Tuesday, the supreme court of the EU, the European Court of Justice overruled a decision to permit Russian energy firm Gazprom to deliver more gas via the Opal gas line - which connects with the Nord Stream line - to Germany, according Reuters news service.
 The ruling was controversial in Poland and some eastern European countries, because Gazprom plans to sidestep legacy pipelines through Poland and Ukraine. Meanwhile, Germany defended the project, as Poland claimed that the scheme would disrupt gas supplies to the region.
 Finland  issued its final regional permit  for the Russia-Germany pipeline in April.
 Broad talks on eastern Ukraine crisis
 The presidents also discussed the crisis in eastern Ukraine, which has continued for the past five years.
 Zelensky said he has been working toward a resolution of the situation but fell short of making promises on reaching positive results.
 The Ukrainian president reiterated his support for the Normandy Four - also known as the Normandy contact group - a diplomatic body consisting of high-level representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, which aims to end the eastern Ukraine war.
 Zelensky also mentioned the importance of the Minsk Protocol, in which Ukraine and Russia agreed to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine in September 2014. The agreement called for a ceasefire in the region but the truce has been violated on a nearly daily basis.
 Niinistö said that since the regional conflict began in February 2014, Finland has offered assistance in establishing contacts with both the countries and is still prepared to do so.
 The Finnish president also noted that he recently met with  Russian  and  French  leaders, saying that it was an honour to also meet Ukraine's new leader.
 The presidents of both countries praised the cooperation between Finland and Ukraine. Zelensky, who has been president since May, expressed satisfaction with investments, energy as well as environmental projects and cooperation in education which Finland has provided.
 On Friday, the second day of his visit to Ukraine, Niinistö is scheduled to speak to attendees at the Yalta European Strategy (Yes) Annual Meeting in Kiev.
 This year the Yes forum invited more than 400 politicians, diplomats and dignitaries from 26 countries to discuss issues on the topic of governance for happiness and the challenges of such efforts.


The Helsinki city council began discussions about Garden Helsinki, a proposed multi-purpose arena in Täkä-Töölö, on Thursday.
 The real-estate project, which is privately funded, would include apartments, a hotel and commercial properties. The site is located next to the old ice rink on Nordenskiöldinkatu.
 The project was initiated by ice hockey team Helsinki IFK and has been criticised for being too large. The council decided on the estimated cost at which the city would lease and sell the site to the builders on Thursday.
 Reservations from the Left Alliance
 Some council members, primarily from the Left Alliance, have expressed concerns about the priority of the decisions made. "The order in which the decisions were made seems unusual. The question of financing arose before anything else was decided,"  Anna Vuorjoki , a council member representing the Left Alliance, said.
 "I believe that we should first think about whether we want the entire hall, and what kind of hall we want. Only then should we decide what price we could sell the site for," she added, recommending that the proposal should be revisited from the beginning.
 Paavo Arhinmäki , another council member from the Left Alliance, said that it seemed strange that the council had already set a price even before the layout for the garden hall had been discussed.
 "It is far too early to set the terms of the transfer. Especially because all of us know that it will be a long process including appeals. So why are they already thinking about the terms of the transfer?" Arhinmäki asked.
 Story continues after photo.
 An illustration of Garden Helsinki. Helsinki Garden
 Mayor, deputy mayor defend decisions
 Deputy Mayor  Anni Sinnemäki , who is in charge of city planning, said that the large scale of the project necessitated that the decisions be made in this order. Sinnemäki said that the current priority will help the project move forward. "The estimated cost will be updated if any relevant changes occur before the land is sold," she added.
 The mayor of Helsinki,  Jan Vapaavuori , defended the proposed arena before the council, saying that it was a big project worth 700 million to 800 million euros.
 "The project will make the city more appealing and enjoyable. It will bring only good things to our city. The project has been split into different parts to make it easier for the developers," Vapaavuori said, indicating that builders could now plan project costs better. "I refuse to entertain claims that this plan has not been transparent. It has been in the works for years and we have all been aware of it."
 While a site has been designated for the Garden Helsinki project, it has not been handed over to developers yet. Construction will begin only after the city council makes its final decision following amendments to the layout plans.


MP  Ari Koponen  was found guilty of illicit fundraising through his Brother Christmas association.
 Eastern Uusimaa District Court fined him just over 1,000 euros on Tuesday for improper fundraising.
 The court ruled that he violated fundraising laws over the first seven months of 2017. During that time his group received about 180,000 euros in donations, of which only 20,000 euros were in return for a product.
 The group distributed buttons and bracelets in exchange for donations of 10-25 euros. The court found that the group should have had a permit for this activity under the terms of the Fundraising Act.
 The court ruled that the statute of limitations had already run out on another case of suspected fundraising by Koponen in 2016. That collection, under the name of his personal company, raised 24,000 euros.
 The court declared that Koponen was aware that he should have had a permit for the fund drives.
 The prosecutor had sought much stiffer fines for Koponen and other members of the association's board.
 Koponen claims negative publicity "harmed his health"
 Koponen meanwhile argued that he should not be punished at all because the publicity around the case had been harmful to his health.
 The court dismissed this, noting that any fundraising drive is an open public activity that may result in negative publicity.
 Story continues after image
 Screengrab from Koponen's Facebook page Brother Christmas, Facebook
 It decided not to punish the other board members, noting that in practice Koponen was responsible for the organisation's operations. All the defendants had denied breaking any laws.
 In a Facebook post on Tuesday afternoon, Koponen decried the ruling as unfair and unreasonable. He pledged to carry on his Brother Christmas activities alongside his parliamentary duties.
 Koponen was  elected to Parliament  on the nationalist Finns Party ticket last spring.


Fresh off completing domestic budget negotiations on Tuesday evening, Finnish Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  headed to Paris on Wednesday for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron. The two are to meet at the Élysée Palace around 3 pm (4 pm Finnish time).
 With Finland currently holding the rotating EU Council presidency, their discussions are to focus on major EU issues.
 According to the Finnish government, these will include concluding talks on the Union's multi-year budget framework as well as the rule of law within the EU, work on climate change, EU enlargement talks, defence cooperation, hybrid threats and Brexit.
 Finland has sought to push ahead negotiations on the multi-annual financial framework by surveying the views and priorities of each member state, and is now crunching these numbers into written form. Funding decisions will determine how ambitiously defence cooperation, for instance, can be advanced.
 At their October 17-18 summit in Brussels, the member states are expected to decide on formally opening membership negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania. They were unable to reach unanimity on the question in June.
 Rinne also plans to travel soon to Hungary to meet with his counterpart  Viktor Orbán , who over the summer criticised Finland in response to pressure over his right-wing government's implementation of the rule of law.
 From France to Satakunta
 On Monday Rinne will visit Rauma on Finland's southwest coast. The PM, a former union boss, is to visit a UPM paper mill that launched redundancy talks on Tuesday. Rinne's office says he aims to find out about the status of the plant and its impact on the town's employment situation.
 Last week, paper giant UPM said it  will close one of the mill's three large paper machines  by the year's end. This will likely lead to one third of the facility's workforce, or nearly 180 people, losing their jobs. Stunned by the extent of the planned job cuts, workers protested last week with a one-day work stoppage.
 Before becoming leader of the Social Democratic Party five years ago, Rinne led three trade unions between 2002 and 2014.


PM  Antti Rinne 's budget proposal drew broad criticism on Wednesday from the political opposition.
 Next year’s budget projects Finland to be two billion euros in the red, even after the state sells off 1.37 billion euros in assets.
 "The government seems to have left the tab running. Money is being spent in a lot of different directions while there’s no certainty of what's coming in. This will lead to the state becoming more indebted," conservative National Coalition Party chair  Petteri Orpo  told Yle.
 Orpo also slammed the government’s employment-boosting measures such as  wage subsidy programmes  as having little impact.
 Opposition Finns Party chair  Jussi Halla-aho , while also critical of the state’s plans to sell off assets to shore up funds, praised the cabinet’s plans to target a 200-million-euro tax break on low- and middle-income earners.
 Christian Democrat leader  Sari Essayah  meanwhile took to Twitter to criticise the budget plans for "eroding consumers' purchasing power."
 "Stimulus budget"
 "Overall, this was a stimulus budget that added more expenditures than it raised taxes. I would have saved the stimulus measures for when there’s a recession on the horizon,"  Ilkka Kaukoranta , chief economist with the blue-collar labour confederation SAK, told Yle’s morning television show on Wednesday.
 He also welcomed the government’s commitment to attracting more work-based immigration.
 “It was a smart decision to ease labour migration [into Finland]. The idea was to streamline the process and shorten waiting periods,” he added.
 The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (FANC) said it was pleased with the 100 million euros in additional funding the government has earmarked for environmental protection.
 FANC did, however, slam the government’s  policies on peat energy , saying high-emission peat should be taxed in the same way as fossil fuels.


Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  will meet with his US counterpart  Donald Trump  during a working visit in early October. The two are to hold talks at the White House on 2 October, Niinistö's office announced on Wednesday.
 In a statement, it said the presidents "will discuss opportunities to increase cooperation between Finland and the United States, including European and Arctic security" as well as "ways to advance shared interests in commercial and technological cooperation".
 After talks and a working lunch, Trump and Niinistö are to hold a joint press conference.
 Niinistö to address Climate Action Summit
 The two are also likely to meet briefly a week earlier in New York, where Niinistö is to attend a reception hosted by Trump during the opening week of the UN General Assembly.
 On 23 September, Niinistö will address the Climate Action Summit. Hosted by UN Secretary-General  António Guterres , the meeting is intended to accelerate implementation of the UN's Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which Trump says the US is abandoning.
 The following day, 24 September, Niinistö will address the General Assembly as well as attending the Secretary General’s State Luncheon and Trump's reception.
 Niinistö last visited the White House in 2017. In July of the following year Trump visited Helsinki for his  summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin  at the Finnish Presidential Palace. Within the past month  Niinistö met with Putin  and Ukrainian President  Volodymyr Zelensky .
 This year marks the 100th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the US and Finland, launched two years after Finland gained independence from the Russian Empire.


The supervisory board of the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra announced Friday afternoon that former prime minister  Jyrki Katainen  has been named the organisation’s new president.
 Sitra said in a release that Katainen was elected by a narrow margin in which he beat future researcher  Markku Wilenius  by five votes to four.
 "I would like to extend my gratitude to Sitra’s Board of Directors and supervisory board for their trust in appointing me as President. Facilitating Finland’s pioneer position amidst societal changes and finding solutions for sustainable well-being are dear to my heart. I have the Sitra spirit in me," Katainen was quoted as saying in the statement.
 In June last year, Katainen indicated that he was  preparing to leave Brussels  to take on other professional challenges. At the same time, his wife Mervi said she would vie for a seat in this year's parliamentary elections.
 EU Commission approval required
 Sitra said that Katainen will continue in his role as a European Commission vice president until the term of the current Commission ends. The newly-appointed president is expected to take up his duties from 1 January 2020.
 "I will immediately submit a formal notification of being appointed as President of Sitra in accordance with the code of conduct for members of the European Commission, after which the Commission will make a decision concerning accepting the position with Sitra. Unfortunately, I am not able to comment on the matter publicly before the Commission’s process is complete," Katainen added in the statement.
 Katainen is a former National Coalition Party chair and between 2011 and 2014 served as prime minister of a six-party coalition government that included the NCP, the Social Democratic Party, the Left Alliance, Greens, Swedish Peoples Party and the Christian Democrats. Prior to that, he served as finance minister and deputy prime minister in an administration led by  Matti Vanhanen  and briefy,  Mari Kiviniemi .
 After stepping down as party chair in June 2014, Katainen nabbed the post of EU commissioner for monetary affairs and the euro. Later that year he became commissioner for jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness, a portfolio he still holds.
 Candidate interviews on Friday
 On Friday Sitra’s supervisory board unanimously agreed to set the president’s monthly salary at 18,553 euros and also decided to terminate a bonus plan and supplementary pension scheme for the position.
 Although the board proposed Katainen as a successor to sitting president  Mikko Kosonen  whose term wraps up at the end of the year, the supervisory board opted to interview the EU commissioner and Wilenius on Friday before making a final choice.
 Sitra’s advisory board comprises members appointed by Parliament. The current chair is Social Democratic Party MP  Antti Lindtman , while the vice-chair is Finns Party lawmaker  Jani Mäkelä .
 Other members are the Greens’  Mari Holopainen , the National Coalition Party’s  Kalle Jokinen  and  Petteri Orpo ,  Markus Lohi  of the Centre Party,  Hanna Sarkkinen  of the Left Alliance,  Pia Viitanen  of the SDP and  Ville Vähämäki  of the Finns Party.


Finns Party chair  Jussi Hallo-aho  told Yle’s Saturday programme Ykkösaamu that he disagreed with any proposal to  dismantle Finland’s practice of prioritising job applicants from EU member states or the European Economic Area .
 The Finland Chamber of Commerce (FCC), which represents 20,000 companies in Finland, recently  proposed a number of changes to make it easier for people from around the world to work in Finland , such as scrapping the rule of  prioritising European labour .
 Halla-aho, who has been convicted for religious defamation and ethnic agitation, said abandoning the rule would lead to an influx of cheap labour into the country that would eventually burden taxpayers.
 The Finns Party chair said he did not see it necessary to open up the Finnish labour market beyond the EU and EEA, which is home to some 500 million people.
 "Harmful discussion"
 Speaking on Ykkösaamu, Halla-aho also called for Finland relaxing laws on ethnic agitation and blasphemy as current rules are "too restrictive on anti-immigrant discussion."
 Commenting on the programme, Helsinki University criminal law professor  Kimmo Nuotio  was quick to shoot down Halla-aho's ideas of loosening defamation laws, telling Yle that the Finns Party chair's proposals were politically motivated.
 Nuotio highlighted that Finland has an international obligation to respect laws pertaining to defamation and that limits to the freedom of speech are anchored in European values and history.
 "Personally, I find this type of discussion harmful -- it's an attempt to undercut the basis for these laws," Nuotio explained.
 The professor also pointed out that while the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has issued many guidelines defending politicians’ right to engage in critical debate, the ECHR has also stressed that laws have been enacted to combat racism and xenophobia.
 Colourful history
 Since the Finns Party was established in 1995,  a number of its politicians , including immigration hardliner Halla-aho, have been  convicted of online hate speech . The party split in 2017  when Halla-aho was elected chair , with co-founder  Timo Soini  and other more moderate party leaders leaving to form an ill-fated new party.
 Halla-aho's Finns Party came close to winning April's parliamentary election, earning just one seat fewer in the new parliament than the Social Democrats.