Summary: Nordea bank in Finland received hundreds of millions of euros, some of it from suspicious sources, according to leaked documents.

A new data leak has revealed a secret network of shell companies that have funnelled billions of euros through the global banking system.
 The documents reveal a number of irregularities about the origin of the cash and suggest that some of the transfers were attempts to conceal funds acquired by way of criminal activity – in other words, there were indications of money laundering risk factors.
 The scheme was allegedly created by a group of Russian businessmen, some of whom are members of Russian President  Vladimir Putin ’s close inner circle.
 The data leak contains evidence of money transfers as well as emails and corporate documents dating from 2005 to 2017. However the key part of the data trove concerns wire transfers from the Lithuanian banks Ūkio and Snora, which have since been shut down by local authorities.
 The material was handed over to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, OCCRP, an international consortium of investigative journalists, as well as the Lithuanian website 15min.lt. Yle’s investigative journalism team MOT is the only Finnish media organisation to have obtained the data.
 Red flags should have been raised
 The leaked documents indicate that at least 700 million euros -- part of it from suspicious transfers -- ended up in accounts held in Nordea banking group, and that some 200 million was transferred to accounts in Finland. Nordea’s customers also included hundreds of sham companies whose real owners are almost impossible to identify.
 Current laws require banks to identify their customers and to determine the origin of suspicious funds. Risk factors include situations in which a company is clearly led by a ghost director or proxy.
 MOT showed some of the leaked material to  Pirjo Jukarainen , a researcher at the Police University College and docent at the University of Tampere. Jukarainen has also been involved in drafting a money laundering risk assessment report at the Police College.
 "Wow! [This is] rather wild. There are certainly several instances here where alarm bells should have rung," Jukarainen said.
 "According to the law a bank must know its customers, understand the background of the business and also track its operations constantly. This has obviously failed. No one should even do business with risk customers. If for example, you are not able to identify with any certainty the actual principles behind a complex corporate structure, then you should end the business," Jukarainen added.
 Russian oligarch funded princely projects
 In addition to Yle’s MOT team, 20 other international media organisations also had access to the data trove. The architect of the so-called "Troika laundromat" was said to be a reputable Russian oligarch,  Ruben Vardanyan , who has supported projects for Britain’s  Prince Charles .
 According to The Guardian, which has also investigated the leaked material, between 2009 and 2011, Prince Charles’ charitable organisation received nearly 200,000 euros via a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands, a known tax haven.
 The money was used for the restoration of a 1750s-built country manor in Scotland, known as Dumfries House. Prince Charles is known for his love of classic architecture. A spokesperson for the Prince told The Guardian that the monarch did not know the exact origin of the funds.
 Odd transactions by Putin insiders
 One of the individuals who appeared to have profited from the clandestine network was musician  Sergei Roldugin , a childhood friend of Vladimir Putin.
 Leaked documents indicate money transfers of more than 60 million euros from shell companies to Roldulgin, whose unusual wealth had previously been  mentioned in the Panama Papers , a 2016 data leak.
 Roldulgin did not respond to interview requests from the OCCRP.
 Hundreds of millions from Nordea for real estate projects
 Businessman Ruben Vardanyan had been the long-time head and a shareholder of the investment bank, Troika Dialog. A significant number of the shell companies mentioned in the leaked documents had been set up for customers of Troika Dialog.
 Vardanyan admitted to investigative journalists that the bank he captained did not ask customers about the origin of their funds.
 "I am not an angel. In Russia you either start a revolution, leave the country or cooperate. I cooperate," Vardanyan said in an interview with the OCCRP.
 Vardanyan, who sold Troika Dialog to Sperbank has strong ties to Nordea: the Nordic financial institution has been a major financier of his real estate business.
 The Nordics’ largest bank has granted loans totalling some 420 million euros to Vardanyan’s tax haven companies, information that came to light in the  Paradise Papers data leak of 2017 .
 Nordea declined to be interviewed by MOT and said that it could not comment on information about its possible clients due to banking secrecy rules.

Data leak reveals shady financial transfers to Nordea Bank


Summary: The bookkeeping offences occurred between 2014 and 2017 and concern the Helsinki cleric’s past as an entrepreneur.

The Helsinki District Court has imposed a 20-day fine on Lutheran Evangelical Church Helsinki Bishop  Teemu Laajasalo  for negligent accounting offences. Based on Laajasalo’s income, the fine amounts to 1,620 euros.
 Laajasalo became bishop of Helsinki in November 2017. Prior to that he was the head of the Kallio parish in Helsinki.
 According to the court’s ruling, Laajasalo’s previous business enterprise, an educational firm called TL Opetus, supplied tax authorities with incorrect information for several years. The errors were corrected in 2017.
 Court finds aggravated negligence
 The court found that Laajasalo’s actions constituted aggravated negligence, because he did not provide his accountant with a significant amount of accounting information for three financial periods and also neglected his duty to check and sign financial statements. The court deemed that the accounting offences occurred between 2014 and 2017.
 Soon after the ruling, the Helsinki diocese issued Laajasalo’s comment on the outcome.
 "It’s impossible to take back my mistakes and it is futile to explain away my omissions. I have previously admitted to the offences and apologised for my carelessness. I accept the court’s decision with humility. My actions as an entrepreneur as part of my past, whose successes and failures I am happy to leave behind," the bishop said in the statement.
 The Helsinki diocese will deal with the court’s ruling separately, at Laajasalo’s request.

Helsinki bishop fined for accounting offences


Summary: Little street crime in Lappeenranta, a plan to offer insects for lunch and the end to summer and winter times.

Lappeenranta is Finland’s safest city, writes daily  Helsingin Sanomat , followed by Espoo and Kouvola.
 The paper ranked the country’s 15 largest cities based on a street safety index, which included the number of muggings, robberies, drunk driving incidents and vandalism. However, manslaughter and sexual assault were excluded from the statistics because such crimes tend to take place in private residences, HS said.
 Lappeenranta – a city of 72,000 inhabitants on the southeastern border – also topped the index in the previous two years.
 ”Ours is an international and tolerant city and it’s part of our Karelian character to be social and welcoming,” said Lappeenranta mayor  Kimmo Jarva.  “We get thousands of Russian visitors every year and more than 70 different nationalities are represented at our university,” Jarva added.
 In addition, there are no neighbourhoods in Lappeenranta where crime or social problems are more prevalent than in others, HS writes. “In this regard, city planning has been quite successful,” said chief inspector  Jukka Lankinen  of Lappeenranta police.
 Street safety in all of Finland’s cities has improved in the past decade, including Helsinki, which held the bottom spot in the survey, HS said. According to the police, the capital has several shopping and entertainment centres that draw people from across the country and many large events take place in Helsinki every year. These factors contribute to Helsinki’s low position in the ranking.
 “For example, Espoo residents go to Helsinki to party, and crimes committed by them have a negative effect on Helsinki’s figures,” said chief superintendent  Marko Savolainen  from the National Police Board.
 Insects for lunch
 Schools, daycares and senior care centres in Jyväskylä may offer food made of insects and seaweed in a few years’ time, tabloid  Ilta-Sanomat  reports.
 A catering group that prepares more than 23,000 meals every day for the city’s public sector plans to serve meat only once a week by 2026. Protein from meat would be replaced by insects, pulled oats, seaweed, quinoa and wild herbs like nettle. However, fish and eggs would be offered as usual.
 The manager of catering group Kylän Kattaus,  Tuija Sinisalo , said some children in Jyväskylä have already had a chance to taste bread made of powdered insects. “There was no outright rejection. The kids were rather interested.”
 According to Sinisalo, testing of insect-based foods is expected to spread to more customers in 2021. “We’ll start the tests among children and young people, whereas any radical changes to the diets of senior citizens are likely to be very minor,” Sinisalo said.
 The company’s strategy is to serve domestic, healthy and nutritious food. “But of course at the same time we also need to think what customers want. For example, we would like as many children as possible to eat lunch at school,” she added.
 Two more years of clock change
 The hope among many people in Finland to finally be done with the biannual rite of turning clocks may happen in 2021, daily  Turun Sanomat  writes. The Transport and Tourism Committee of the European Parliament approved the proposal to end switching between summer and winter time in a vote on Monday.
 For those countries that decide to permanently keep their summer time, the clock change on the last Sunday in March 2021 should be the last one, the committee said. Meanwhile, EU member states that prefer to keep their standard time, also known as ‘winter time’, could change the clocks for the last time on the last Sunday in October 2021.
 The next step is for the full European Parliament to accept the proposal this spring, TS writes.
 At the end of last year,  the EU Commission – on Finland’s initiative – proposed ending the practice of daylight saving time.  However Finland cannot decide to abolish daylight savings time on its own, as any change on the matter requires a decision at the EU level.

Tuesday's papers: Finland's safest cities, bugs for lunch and seasonal time change


Summary: Best known as founder of the populist Finns Party, Timo Soini says he will not run in this spring's parliamentary election.

Foreign Minister and Blue Reform MP  Timo Soini  – best known for co-founding  and later quitting the populist Finns Party  – will not seek re-election to the Finnish Parliament in April. However he left the door open to a possible European Parliament bid in May.
 Soini made the announcement in his blog on Tuesday, the last possible day to register as a candidate for next month's Finnish election.
 He said he will support the fledgling Blue Reform party in its campaign ahead of  the election on 14 April . In his post, Soini does not mention a possible bid to return to the European Parliament, writing only of beginning a "new journey after this stint as an MP".
 Possible candidates for the European Parliament elections have until late April to register, a month before the 26 May poll.
 Soini's decision is likely to have a major impact on the Blue Reform's chances in this spring's two elections. Since being established in mid-2017, the party's support has remained low despite its status as a government partner.
 The most recent  Yle public opinion poll  shows support for the party languishing at just 1.4 percent.
 Track record of electoral victories
 In the 2015 Parliament election, Soini was the nation's second-most popular candidates, garnering nearly 30,000 votes, just behind Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä .
 The Blue Reform's parliamentary candidates this spring include defence minister  Jussi Niinistö , European and cultural affairs minister  Sampo Terho  and parliamentary group leader  Simon Elo .
 In the 2015 election, Niinistö and Terho gathered about a third as many votes each as Soini.
 Elo: "Blue Reform has a future without Soini"
 Soini co-founded the Finns Party in 1995, leading it from 1997 to 2017, when it  split into two . Its more hardline faction carried on under the old name led by MEP  Jussi Halla-aho , and was replaced in the cabinet by the  hastily-established Blue Reform .
 He was first became an MP in 2003, switching to the European Parliament after a landslide win in 2009. Soini returned to the Finnish legislature two years later, leading the Finns Party to a massive electoral victory but opting to remain in the opposition.
 Soini, now 56, has been foreign minister since 2015, first representing the Finns Party and then the Blues,  arousing controversy  over his participation in anti-abortion events while on official trips abroad.
 On Tuesday parliamentary delegation chair Elo said that the Blue Reform still has a future without Soini. He told the news agency STT that the party takes "a positive view" of the idea that Soini might stand in the European Parliament election.

Timo Soini to leave Parliament after 16 years


Summary: An alleged hijacking attempt took place on a night bus in central Finland late last year.

The trial of a man suspected of hijacking a bus in central Finland in December began in the Central Finland District Court on Tuesday.
 The court clarified at the start of the trial that the incident took place in Jyväskylä, and not in the neighbouring municipality of Uurainen, as previously reported.
 The 32-year-old man is accused of hijacking, assault, drug use, operating a motor vehicle without a license and obstruction of police. The prosecutor is seeking a three-year prison sentence for the defendant.
 The incident occurred on a night bus from Helsinki to the northwestern city of Oulu. The suspect, whom police described as being "of foreign background", allegedly attacked the driver and attempted to steer the vehicle before being overpowered by other passengers.
 Passengers prevented serious accident
 There were 11 other passengers on the bus at the time and their quick reaction reportedly averted a serious accident, the prosecutor said. The driver stopped the bus after about six kilometres, at which point a call was placed to the police.
 During the investigation, the suspect admitted to daily narcotics use. He also said he had received an influenza vaccination before the bus trip. Traces of cannabis and metabolic substances were detected in his blood.
 One person involved in the incident is claiming 1,000 euros in damages for emotional distress and 1,200 euros for pain and suffering.
 According to the prosecutor,  the case has no connection to a similar alleged hijacking attempt in the southwestern town of Loimaa  in December.

Prosecutor seeks three-year prison term for alleged bus hijacker


Summary: Benefits account for 90 percent of the annual income of a quarter of a million people in Finland.

More people in Finland are living in poverty  as a direct result of the current administration’s efforts  to reform the unemployment benefits and tax systems, claims a new report by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
 On Tuesday the THL published the results of a recent analysis of the level of basic social benefits, titled "Evaluation of the adequacy of basic social security 2015–2019". The document mentions that it is possible to see the impact of the government’s activation model in the reduction of benefits.
 According to the national benefits agency Kela, which administers unemployment benefits, by the end of 2018, 40 percent of recipients of labour market support and basic unemployment allowance received  lower benefit payments as a result of the model , which aims to prod unemployed people to find work.
 "Many of the legislative reforms during this government have eroded basic social security. Index freezes and cuts have affected unemployment benefits, housing support and home care allowances, for example. The level of basic social security has declined for many," THL research head  Jussi Tervola  said.
 Poverty on the rise
 According to the report, legal reforms implemented between 2015 and 2019 have eroded the incomes of single parents and people living alone relative to other groups in society.
 It also revealed that the number of people relying on benefits to live has increased since the previous analysis. Researchers found that the number of people living on benefits increased by nearly 40,000 from 2013 to 2017. This means that there are currently over half a million people in Finland (510,000) for whom half of their annual income comes from social security.
 At the same time, officials have seen an increase in the number of people for benefits account for 90 percent of their annual income. They now number 250,000-30,000 more than the last review.
 Tervola said that  poverty in Finland has increased . In terms of the number of low income households, the current administration’s benefits and taxation policies have resulted in a 0.7-percent increase in poverty – if employment impact is discounted. He noted that the change may sound small, but in real terms it affects thousands of people.
 "Some 38,500 people have slipped below the low-income limit. Whether that is a lot or a little depends on whom you ask,” he commented.
 In spite of the findings, the report did not recommend a suitable level of basic social security.
 “In the final analysis that is a political question. We are providing some metrics, but we cannot say directly what the right level of benefits would be,” Tervola declared.
 Benefits don’t go far enough
 The THL assessed the current level of benefits in relation to a set of reference budgets for a minimum level of consumption compiled by Helsinki University’s Centre for Consumer Society Research.
 "The central finding of the report is that the level of basic benefits is still inadequate for reasonable minimum-consumption budgets, except for pensioners and for students with loans," Tervola noted.
 The people most likely to suffer from the shortfall between income and expenditure are the people dependent on unemployment benefits as well as the minimum sickness and parental benefits as well as recipients of the child home care allowance, the report concluded. Recipients of study grants also struggled, unless they could fall back on student loans. Recent changes have meant that students have become more reliant on loans than benefits for financial support.
 On the other hand, the report concluded that even the minimum pension benefits are enough to ensure that retirees can cover reasonable consumption. However the report noted that with respect to pensioners, their sample budget was based on basic social security.
 Tervola pointed out that the calculus did not account for increases in customer health care payments or the impact on incomes of changes in compensation for medication. He said that the net effect of the analysis for the elderly is that it paints too rosy a picture of their ability to get by.
 "In this report, we have focused on the income side and not on the expenditure side," Tervola added.
 Time to talk about income support
 The authors of the report stressed that the role of income support in Finland’s benefits system.
 "The role of income support as a stop-gap for basic social security has increased considerably since 2015, [with people using] up to 100 euros a month [in this way]," Tervola explained.
 The report observed that for some benefits recipients, income support appears to have become  a permanent part of their incomes . Kela statistics indicate that 37 percent of people receiving labour market support also received income support in 2017.
 According to the THL, the situation becomes problematic given that income support is by nature a very different kind of support than other basic social benefits. Applying for income support requires more due diligence than basic social security and it is affected by the income and means of the entire household.
 "On the other hand, basic benefits are personal. During the current administration we have moved more towards the income support direction." Tervola remarked that the report would stimulate discussion about the role of income support.
 "Is the intention for income support to be an extension of benefits for low income groups? Do we want to expand the role of income support? It was originally intended to be a kind of last- and very temporary resort," Tervola pointed out.

Report: More people using income support to meet benefits shortfall as poverty rises in Finland


Summary: Following allegations of money laundering at Nordea Bank, the Financial Supervisory Authority (FIVA) has pledged to become more vigilant.

The Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIVA) is establishing a new unit to specifically combat money laundering.
 Samu Kurri , head of the agency's institutional supervision department, told Yle on Tuesday that the new 11-member team will significantly boost the watchdog's oversight measures. He said it will expand FIVA's ability to carry out inspections and come up with more precise risk profiles.
 Kurri promised that the new unit will introduce measures to tackle money laundering "closer to the international level" .
 Investigative journalists probing international money laundering schemes say that Finland's banking supervisors have done little to intervene in money laundering.
 On Monday  Yle published a report  detailing extensive money laundering at the Finnish branch of the Nordic financial conglomerate Nordea.
 "We have looked in the mirror"
 Facing domestic and international criticism, FIVA has pledged to step up its game.
 "We have looked in the mirror and changed our procedures," Kurri said in a Radio Suomi interview.
 Finland's anti-money laundering operations are the subject of a separate report to be published on Wednesday.
 "We are reacting in advance to the likely recommendations. Of course we could have more employees, but this is a significant change. We will consider other possible measures following the report," he added.
 Both Nordea and FIVA have admitted that they have not taken money laundering seriously enough, and are promising to mend their ways.
 "We in the Nordic countries have been too gullible regarding money laundering. Finland is quick to advise others on how to do things right. Before we can further do so, we must do as we say and show an example," Kurri said.

Financial watchdog sets up anti-money laundering team


Summary: The city of Kokkola on Finland’s west coast has approved a plan to expand coal transshipment via a local harbour.

The Port of Kokkola in west-coast Finland is facing local resistance over plans to expand coal operations.
 The facility has applied to the local regional administrative authority for an environmental permit that would allow it to receive up to one million tons of coal annually, a radical increase over the amount it takes in at present.
 Port officials have also applied for a permit to begin coal handling operations alongside the original request.
 Last Friday the port announced the arrival of a first experimental coal delivery and said in a release that coal would come from Russia for storage at its deep harbour facility before being exported to different parts of the world.
 The city of Kokkola as well as its construction and environment committee have come out in support of the permit. However city councillors added one provision to the statement supporting the permit application: it wants operational guidelines on how to minimise the amount of coal dust that may result from offloading, storing and reloading coal deliveries.
 Opposition to coal, iron pellets
 Some Kokkola residents living near the port are opposing the proposed coal shipping operation. They are also resisting the transportation of another of the facility’s main products, iron pellets, which are handled by a local firm, Rautaheimo.
 Mayor  Stina Mattila  said that she understands locals’ concerns, adding that she has received feedback from as far away as Kannus and Kälviä. She noted that this is why city officials are paying close attention to ensuring that the port minimises possible inconvenience during processing of the materials.
 The city council also discussed how residents could flag potential problems that may arise. She pointed out that handling iron pellets also creates dust.
 The mayor commended a proposal to ensure that the local residents’ association would hold open discussions with representatives of large industrial companies and the harbour.
 City officials noted that coal dust and storm water runoff from industrial areas will have the largest environmental impact as port operations expand.
 Meanwhile increased coal transshipment activity would significantly increase rail traffic to the harbour to reach 13,000 rail cars annually.

Residents of western Finland town oppose plan to boost coal operations


Summary: Nordea Bank says it is taking recent money laundering suspicions very seriously after a massive data leak revealed that it had received money from shady sources.

Following reporting about hundreds of millions of euros of partly dubious origin transferred to Nordea by a group of Russian businessmen, the firm’s group chief said that the organisation is taking concerns about potential money laundering very seriously and with humility.
 Nordea Bank president and CEO  Casper von Koskull  said on Yle’s A-studio discussion programme on Monday evening that the financial services group had underestimated the complexity of the transactions and had also been naive about them.
 However von Koskull defended the institution, saying that matters had progressed significantly since the transfers were made and that Nordea is a very different bank today than it had been a few years ago.
 On Monday,  Yle reported on a major data leak , according to which some 700 million euros – some of it originating from dubious transfers – ended up in the banking group’s accounts and that 200 million was transferred to accounts in Finland.
 The data leak revealed a number of irregularities about the origin of the cash and suggested that some of the transfers were attempts to conceal funds acquired by way of criminal activity – in other words, there were indications of money laundering risk factors.
 The scheme was allegedly created by a group of Russian businessmen, some of whom are members of Russian President  Vladimir Putin’ s close inner circle.
 The data suggested that some of Nordea’s customers ran operations that bore the hallmarks of money laundering. For example the client list included companies with proxies or ghost directors, irregular money transfers and which had no real business activity to speak of.
 Current legislation requires banks to know their customers, understand their business and its background and to follow their operations constantly.
 "Nothing new" in revelations
 Speaking on A-studio, von Koskull said that the data presented on Monday did not offer any new information.
 "We have reviewed with the Danish authorities those transactions where suspicions were reported and we are still reviewing them," the group chief said.
 He added that the bank had stopped doing business with customers, whose operations raised suspicions, referring specifically to material that emerged between 2004 and 2015.
 Von Koskull was asked if the financial conglomerate had received any new information about the claims and why Nordea declined the opportunity to comment on the findings, which involved its operations up to 2017.
 "We have commented in writing," he responded. However he would not comment on the recent MOT findings, adding that things had changed within the institution.
 He said that over the past three to four years, Nordea had increased the resources used to investigate possible money laundering tenfold.
 "Today roughly 1,500 people – five percent of our personnel – are devoted to these matters. We have invested nearly half a million euros in this area to improve the level."
 However he admitted that criminals are often a few steps ahead and that anti-money laundering efforts are never adequate. He also called for better cooperation among financial institutions as well as for the establishment some kind of EU-level international agency to prevent money laundering.
 "This is a global issue," he declared.
 Yle’s investigative journalism programme MOT as well as 20 other international media organisations reviewed the data leak, which included material from 2005 to 2017.

"We were naive" about financial transfers, says Nordea boss


Summary: The family feared deportation while the father was still receiving treatment for the infectious disease.

A four-person family living in Pori, southwest Finland and seeking political asylum in Finland has disappeared, according to  Kaisa Huhtala , head of the local parish in Teljä.
 The central Asian family reportedly feared that they would be deported from Finland while the father was receiving treatment for tuberculosis.
 The man was said to be have begun the treatment in November when he was diagnosed with coronary tuberculosis, meaning that he would need another nine months of medical attention.
 According to the Satakunta hospital district in southwest Finland, there are great risks associated with discontinuing treatment, since if left untreated, the condition could lead to death. There is also a risk of a medical reaction in tuberculosis carriers if care is interrupted or if it is inadequate.
 "I also think it is a major risk that rejected asylum seekers can disappear underground to avoid deportation. This disrupts treatment contact and this could be harmful to others," said  Raija Uusitalo-Seppälä , physician in charge of infectious diseases in Satakunta.
 Migri: Illness no obstacle to deportation
 The family went off-grid after receiving word that an appeal to reverse their deportation order had been quashed.
 "The immigration police have told the family’s lawyer that police have set up a five-person escort for their deportation," Huhtala explained.
 According to the parish priest, the family was last seen at church on the Sunday during the winter ski holiday.
 "The situation is that we don’t know where they are. This has caused great sadness and distress. Parishioners are asking where they might be," she added.
 The Finnish Immigration Service Migri said that a tuberculosis diagnosis does not provide an automatic guarantee against deportation, nor is there any legal impediment to deportation during treatment.

Asylum seeker with tuberculosis vanishes along with family


Summary: Finland's print press looks at sexual assault laws in Finland, events at the northeast border in late 2015-early 2016, and the hunt for mobile phone savings.

Helsingin Uutiset carries a story on a  new report from the human rights watchdog Amnesty on sexual assaults in Finland . Researcher  Otava Piha  will present the findings today in Helsinki, with former president  Tarja Halonen , Finland's justice minister  Antti Häkkänen  and  Kumi Naidoo , Amnesty International's secretary-general in attendance.
 The report points out that only a fraction of the estimated 50,000 victims of sexual violence in Finland tell the authorities about what happened to them, and the response and care they receive varies widely. In 2017, the police were informed of 1,245 rape crimes, of which 71 were investigated. Only one third of these cases ever made it to a hearing in court. A sentence was only handed out for 209 of the cases.
 The Finnish branch of the Amnesty organisation calls on Finland to improve its legal protection for victims of sexual offences, saying that Finnish law does not contain wording about the victim's lack of consent. At present, Finnish law defines rape in two ways: forced intercourse under the threat of violence, and cases in which the aggressors take advantage of the victims' inability to defend themselves. The victim's lack of consent is not written in the law, even though Finland has agreed to several international agreements that include this component.
 "Sex without consent is rape," says Piha. "It would be important to change the definition of rape crimes [in Finland] as consent-based."
 Remembering Finnish-Russian border tension
 The tabloid Iltalehti reports on another book released today:  Tiukka paikka (A Tight Spot) , written by an Iltalehti reporter and the interior ministry's top civil servant,  Päivi Nerg . The expose focuses on  events at the Finnish-Russian border in Lapland in late 2015-early 2016 .
 During a three month period, the book says  1,700 asylum seekers from 36 different countries  crossed into Finland from Russia – arriving at the border station on bicycles or in used Lada cars. The Finnish police and border guard started to investigate and found that a human trafficking network in Russia was assisting the asylum seekers by providing lodging at a local hotel and then the means to get to the border.
 Norway also saw 5,500 asylum seekers cross through their northern border with Russia via Storskog during this period, but this loophole was closed in January 2016, when the station stopped operations entirely. Numbers at the Finnish border continued to increase, and so the current finance minister and then-interior minister  Petteri Orpo  began negotiations with the Russian authorities.
 Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  also brought up the issue with Russian president  Vladimir Putin . Finland and Russia eventually reached an agreement to temporarily  close the Raja-Jooseppi and Salla border crossings to third country nationals . Only Finnish, Russian and Belarusian citizens were allowed to use the crossings for a period of six months, starting in March 2016. By June, the  situation was over .
 Fickle mobile phone service customers see savings
 And the newspaper Lapin Kansa carries an article on how  every fifth Finnish resident switches their mobile phone subscriptions annually . The paper says that price is not the only factor in people's eagerness to change, as things like coverage, speed and services are also seen as important.
 Representatives from the 'big three' telecom operators in Finland, Elisa, Telia and DNA, say that the Finnish market is very competitive, with each following the offers of the others carefully. If a customer threatens to leave, the company is usually prepared to offer a better fee or service to entice them to stay.
 "We've noticed a trend that many customers who are willing to switch are getting better subscriptions. This is a pity, from the point of view of loyal consumers,"  Satu Toepfer , group manager at the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority, tells the paper.
 Deals featuring fixed-term lower prices have become an integral marketing ploy in Finland, so much so that operators are not allowed to advertise their post-discount prices as their normal price. In general, prices for mobile phone services have been rising in Finland as connection speeds and data amounts have grown.
 At the end of 2018, LK reports that there were some 6.9 million mobile service subscriptions in use in Finland, 2.6 million of which were registered to businesses. Three-quarters of these subscriptions provided unlimited data transfer services at a monthly fee. Elisa commanded 37 percent of subscriptions, Telia 34 percent, and DNA 28 percent. The rest of the competition only accounted for one percent of the market.

Wednesday's papers: Mutual consent, past Russian border tensions, mobile service wars


Summary: A motorist has been medevacked to Kuopio hospital following the crash. None of the recruits in the truck were seriously hurt.

A woman has been seriously injured in a head-on collision between a military transport vehicle and a car in Liperi, eastern Finland.
 The crash took place around 8am Wednesday at the intersection of Polvijärventie and Vaiviontie near Joensuu in the North Karelia region, when the lorry struck a car.
 The motorist, a woman in her 30s, was badly injured. She has been taken by helicopter to Kuopio University Hospital, some 130km away.
 Including its driver, the truck was carrying 14 conscripts from the North Karelia Border Guard's Border Jaeger Company. Three were in the vehicle's cab and 12 in the back. According to Eastern Finland Police, none of the service members were seriously injured.
 Conscript suspected of bodily injury, endangering traffic
 Eastern Finland Police suspect the conscript who was driving the lorry of endangering traffic safety and bodily injury. The transport vehicle struck the left side of the car at a stop sign.
 Polvijärventie was closed to traffic while rescue and clearing operations were underway.
 Lt Col  Jussi Napola  of the North Karelia Border Guard tells Yle that the accident occurred during a normal exercise, which has been halted for Tuesday.
 Napola says the conscripts have returned to their base at Onttola in the border municipality of Kontiolahti and have been offered crisis counselling.
 In October 2017,  four people died  when a military transport vehicle collided with a train in Raseborg, southwest Finland. Last autumn, prosecutors decided  not to pursue charges  against the recruit who was driving the lorry.

Woman seriously injured as lorry carrying 14 conscripts strikes car in eastern Finland


Summary: Production of Verso Food's popular Härkis fava bean product line will continue in western Finland.

Kavli Ltd, part of the Norwegian Kavli Group, has announced that it is buying Verso Food, a Finnish food company specializing in plant-based foods. In Finland, Kavli is primarily known for its mayonnaise and processed cheeses.
 Verso Food is best known in Finland for its Härkis brand of fava bean products. Both Härkis and pulled oats products under the Nyhtökaura name have become established products in Finland with consumers who are looking to eat less meat.
 Verso Food’s CEO  Tomi Järvenpää  says Kavli is well-placed to help Verso Foods achieve its international goals, as there are "strong organisations in place in Sweden, Norway and the UK" that export to more than 20 countries.
 Production will stay in Finland
 Verso Food's headquarters will stay in Finland after the acquisition. The company currently employs 17 people in the capital city area and Kauhava.
 "Kavli has a strong growth agenda and a long-term ambition within plant-based food. Verso Food is a perfect fit with our own Planti brand to extend our responsibility within sustainable food," says  Gerhard Bley , CEO of Kavli in Sweden and Finland.
 Verso Food's Järvenpää says both companies are focused on creating new eating habits in Finland and the world.
 "Our fava-bean-based products are produced in Southern Ostrobothnia and Kavli’s oat- and soy-based Planti products in Turku, so production in our home market of Finland will remain the foundation for our growth," he says.
 Beans grown in the Nordic countries
 Founded in 2010, the Finnish company of Verso Food developed a patented technology to produce fava bean products that can replace meat products in vegetarian dishes. Unlike soybeans and mycoprotein, fava beans are grown in the Nordic region, which means shorter transport times.
 Verso Food had a turnover of just over 6 million euros last year, while the Kavli Group had a turnover of nearly 350 million euro in 2018.

Norwegian Kavli buys Finnish vegetarian firm Verso Food


Summary: Members of several Finnish environmental groups demonstrated at the Finnish Parliament on 6 March. Eight protesters were detained after scaling the giant stone columns.

An array of environmental NGOS carried out a protest in Helsinki on Wednesday to call attention to climate concerns. An estimated 250 people gathered on the steps of the Finnish Parliament. Eight people climbed the Parliament House's massive granite columns in Greenpeace overalls as part of the protest.
 The steps of the Finnish Parliament on 6 March.  Anne Orjala / Yle
 They were detained on charges of disrupting the peace and insubordination, but released later in the afternoon.
 Law enforcement told Yle earlier that it did not have plans to remove the climbers from the pillars, as it wished to avoid any dangerous incidents.
 Other groups taking part included the Finnish Nature League, Friends of the Earth, Extinction Rebellion, Climate Parents Finland and the performance art group Ilmastokirkko ('Climate Church').
 Helsinki Police reported on Twitter that about 250 people were taking part in the protest. Some of the banners at the protest contained slogans like "The future is decided now" and "Limit logging".
 A colourful protester at the event. Anne Orjala / Yle

Climate protesters climb Finnish Parliament House pillars


Summary: A court said the Fishing Act infringes on the Sámi's constitutional right to practice their culture, in which fishing plays a key role.

The District Court of Finnish Lapland has overturned all charges of illicit fishing against four Sámi men from Utsjoki, the country's northernmost municipality. According to the court, the Sámi were practising their constitutionally-protected culture, which includes fishing in Vetsijoki and Utsjoki, two tributaries of the River Teno.
 Known as the Tana across the border in Norway, the 361-kilometre River Teno supports the world's biggest Atlantic salmon stock and is the most productive salmon river in both countries.
 According to the court, restrictions added a few years ago to the Fishing Act also violate human rights treaties signed by Finland, which guarantee the Sámi people the right to practice their own traditional indigenous culture.
 Salmon stocks sufficient
 The court dismissed charges because the Fishing Act limits the Sámi people's right to fish in their 'home river,' the Vetsijoki. According to the court, the accused were not guilty of any crime as they have the right to fish in the waterway.
 It also ruled that the salmon spawning targets in the Vetsijoki had been met, implying that their fishing was sustainable.
 The district court ordered the state of Finland to pay for the men's legal expenses.
 The court also dismissed also charges against a Sámi man who caught salmon using a net during closed season in August. The body said that a statute restricting traditional net fishing of salmon in the Utsjoki river in August violates the Sámi's right to practice their culture as specified in clause 17 of the constitution.
 In the court's view, the level of salmon stocks in the Utsjoki does not justify the August fishing restrictions. It declared that the statute violates not only the Finnish constitution but also international agreements ensuring indigenous rights.
 In 2017, a group of Sámi activists occupied an island in the Teno to protest fishing restrictions.
 In recent years, the Sámi have also been involved with disputes over  gold mining  and  logging  in their traditional lands.
 Finland is home to an estimated 9,000-10,000 Sámi people, most of them living in the northerly Lapland region.

Lapland's indigenous Sámi score victory in fishing dispute


Summary: International news media reported encountering a woman who claimed to be Finnish and living in an Islamic State-controlled area.

A journalist writing on Twitter on Wednesday said that he had encountered a Finnish woman living in an area in Syria controlled by the extremist organisation Islamic State.
 Kurdish affairs analyst and journalist  Mutlu Civiroglu  tweeted that the woman came to Syria four years ago, lived in several different cities and married twice. He added that she had a 13-year-old daughter, who was also married.
 Civiroglu claimed that the woman said she wanted to return to Finland because life here is easier and that she wanted to live as a Muslim in Finland.
 The US 24-hour news channel CNN also reported on a Finnish woman who had lived in Islamic State-controlled areas in Syria and wanted to return to Finland.
 A woman going by the name " Sanna " told the channel in an interview that four years ago, she travelled to Syria with her husband, a Moroccan plumber, and then converted to Islam.
 "At first life was good, but then the war destroyed that life, not Isis," Sanna told CNN correspondent  Ben Wedeman .
 "Yes, I do want to return to Finland. I really do. Absolutely, I do, I do," she declared in the interview.
 However in the brief interview, Sanna did not say what had happened to her husband or whether or not she had other family members in Syria. She also did not speak about possible ties to Isis.
 Status of Isis fighters' wives and children uncertain
 Australian national broadcaster ABC also featured an interview with a Finnish woman who had been in IS territory for four and a half years, and who gave her name as Sanna. The woman said that she was originally from Helsinki.
 According to Sanna, she came to Syria with her family and had four children. She told ABC that she expected to be put in prison in Finland.
 In recent days, thousands of people have fled Isis strongholds in Baghouz, eastern Syria, close to the border with Iraq.
 The exodus includes many IS fighters’ wives and children, whose futures are uncertain. Some of the best known of them include the widow of French jihadist  Jean-Michel Clain , who has been linked with terror attacks in Paris.
 Clain’s wife was also interviewed by Wedeman and she said that both her husband and brother-in-law had been killed in battle and that she has also lost three children in the fighting.
 "I don’t want to return to France because the French have killed my family and I will end up in prison," she said.
 Finnish citizens may return
 Two weeks ago Interior Minister  Kai Mykkänen  said that Finland would not encourage people who left the country to fight with Isis to return home.
 However Finland’s basic policy is that Isis fighters with Finnish citizenship can return home.
 The minister said that when such a situation arises, Finnish authorities will prepare for the return of people who have been embedded in terrorist organisations.
 "Before [an individual] is relocated to Finland, we will ensure that the threshold for investigating them is very low, if they are suspected of crimes [committed] in the conflict area," Mykkänen commented.

Finnish woman wants to return from IS stronghold: International media


Summary: The suspect’s brother has also been held in connection with attempted murder.

The Helsinki District Court has remanded in absentia the suspect wanted in connection with  a stabbing attack  in the city’s Haaga district, in which two adults and three children were injured.
 Police said on Wednesday that the remand hearing took place on Tuesday. The man was remanded on probable cause of attempted murder and attempted manslaughter.
 The court also remanded the suspect’s 29-year-old brother into pre-trial custody on Wednesday on suspicion of participating in attempted murder.
 Police: Ex-wife "clearly" the target
 Detective Inspector  Pekka Hätönen  said that the brother was not present during the knife attack, which targeted the assailant’s former spouse and her three children.
 Police said that after interviewing the children, they have determined that the target of the knifing was not the youngsters but the suspect’s former partner.
 "The ex-wife was clearly the target here," Hätönen declared.
 Police said that they have received information about sightings of the suspect,  who is still on the run , and are looking into the leads.
 In January this year, the Western Uusimaa District Court sentenced the suspect to six months in prison for assaulting his ex-wife.
 On 8 February, the Helsinki District Court had issued a restraining order against the suspect.

Helsinki knife attack suspect remanded in absentia


Summary: In 2015 a medical director declared that there is no medical reason to provide fertility treatment to female same-sex couples.

The Helsinki Administrative Court has ruled that a senior physician’s directive to provide fertility treatments only to heterosexual couples discriminates against same-sex female couples.
 In May 2015,  Markku Mäkijärvi , medical director with the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital district HUS, gave an order that public services could only be used to treat infertility resulting from medical conditions. A similar directive was signed by medical chiefs of staff at Finland’s five university hospitals.
 According to the edict, there is no medical reason for providing fertility treatment to female couples and same-sex couples were therefore excluded from care for infertility.
 In December 2016, the Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal found that the directive discriminated against female same-sex couples on the basis of their sexual orientation. The tribunal prohibited the medical heads from perpetuating the discriminatory guideline and found that they had neglected their duty to promote equality.
 On top of the ruling, the tribunal slapped the group with a 30,000-euro fine. The HUS medical director countered the ruling, denying that doctors had discriminated against female same-sex couples.
 Physician appeals tribunal ruling
 In a new ruling, the Helsinki Administrative Court upheld the tribunal’s view and found that the physicians’ directive discriminated against female couples on the basis of their sexual orientation. The court also called on the doctors to put an end to the discriminatory practice.
 However the court found that equality legislation’s requirement for officials’ duty to ensure that equality is upheld and to take the necessary action to ensure the application of equality did not extend to medical directors because they are administrators and not the persons intended in the legislation.
 As a result, the administrative court overturned the tribunal’s call for the medical chief to implement measures consistent with equality laws. The court also dismissed the fine imposed on the director because the tribunal had imposed a joint penalty for two main obligations that differed materially from each other.
 The administrative court declared that the tribunal did not address the issue of whether or not fertility treatments based on donated reproductive cells belong to the range of services provided by the public sector.
 The medical director may still appeal the court decision in the Supreme Administrative Court.
 HUS: Decision based on public health care limits
 Hospital district HUS noted that the ruling related to medical director Mäkijärvi.
 "We will review the ruling and its arguments carefully. Above all, this is a question of who decides on new remits for the Finnish health care system and what we do with public funds," Mäkijärvi said in a statement.
 The medical director said that HUS decided to take the matter to Helsinki’s administrative court because physicians wanted to know who decides on the limits of public care.
 "At the moment in Finnish public hospitals, care is provided on the basis of illness and for medical reasons. Hospital care is governed by unified national criteria endorsed by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Funding for services is granted according to those criteria. When we get new tasks, we will also need resources for them," the medical director added.
 Ministry and health watchdog agree
 Public health officials have long lined up with the views of the administrative court. In autumn 2014, the health ministry updated guidelines on fertility treatments to clarify that different groups should have equal status.
 According to the ministry, medical reasons would be the only obstacle to providing fertility treatments and public healthcare providers should not discriminate against any group.
 The medical health watchdog Valvira has also previously indicated that it opposes regulations that would only provide treatment to hetero couples.

Court: Refusal to provide fertility treatment to same-sex couples discriminatory


Summary: The Central Finland District Court convicted the suspect on the lesser charges of endangerment and gross negligence.

A 32-year-old man  suspected of hijacking a bus , assault, drug use, operating a motor vehicle without a license and resisting police was cleared of the charges on Tuesday in the Central Finland District Court, avoiding a potential three-year prison sentence.
 The man was however found guilty of public endangerment and gross negligence, resulting in 80 day fines of six euros, or a total of 480 euros.
 Additionally, because the suspect had been held in remand since 5 December, the district court viewed the punishment as already having been served, and he was therefore free to go.
 The incident occurred in Jyväskylä, on a night bus from Helsinki to the northwestern city of Oulu. In the Tuesday ruling, the court found there wasn't sufficient evidence to show that that the suspect, whom police described as being "of foreign background", had intentionally interfered with the operation of the bus or intentionally tried to interfere with the driver's steering.
 Driver never lost control of the wheel
 The man was accompanied on the bus by three acquaintances. After running to the front of the bus three times, the man yelled " Allahu Akbar  (God is great)" several times and ran to the front of the bus again. He eventually grabbed the driver of the bus by the hand and appeared to be highly agitated, however his three companions managed to subdue him. After a few more kilometres, the driver of the bus pulled over and called the police.
 The driver of the bus said the suspect in the case grabbed his right hand, but not the wheel. The 40-year veteran bus driver said he was able to maintain a tight grip on the steering wheel and no danger to the passengers was presented.
 During the investigation, the suspect admitted to daily narcotics use. He also said he had received an influenza vaccination before the bus trip.
 Traces of cannabis and metabolic substances were detected in his blood. He also admitted to resisting the police, explaining that he felt they had treated him badly.
 The prosecutor in the case said the incident was unrelated to a  similar alleged hijacking attempt  in the south-western town of Loimaa in December.

Suspected bus captor cleared of hijacking charges


Summary: Police plan a European arrest warrant for a runaway suspect, politicians veer left and plans are afoot to ensure people stay on the job in their senior years.

Police are preparing  a European arrest warrant  for the 33-year-old man suspected of a stabbing attack last weekend that injured two adults and three children, according to tabloid paper Ilta-Sanomat.
 The proposed cross-border warrant allowed a Helsinki court to remand the assailant -- whom the daily named as  Abduljabbar Al-Hmedavi  --  into custody in absentia on Tuesday  on suspicion of attempted murder, among other offences.
 "A European arrest warrant requires a thorough description of the act. We have discussed it with the prosecutor, who will make a decision about it later," Detective Inspector  Pekka Hätönen  told IS, adding that the suspect might still be in Finland.
 The investigator said however that police cannot rule out the possibility that the suspect has already left the country, hence the move to remand him in absentia. The suspect's 28-year-old brother was also remanded into custody on Wednesday for allegedly helping to  plan the knife attack , although he was reportedly not at the scene when the stabbings occurred.
 Political views take a step left
 Almost all of Finland's  parliamentary groups have taken a step to the left  since the country's last general election in 2015, says daily Helsingin Sanomat. The paper reported the finding after analysing the responses of over 1,700 candidates for its election compass ahead of  next month's parliamentary vote .
 The analysis revealed that based on their answers, Centre Party and Swedish People's Party candidates in particular had moved closer to the left of the political axis than four years ago. Over the same period, the views of Finns Party candidates had become more conservative, while many others had edged toward more liberal principles.
 According to HS, the shift to the left mostly reflects significantly less support among candidates for the privatisation of public services than during the last parliamentary elections. At the same time, nearly all candidates were more likely to lean toward hiking taxes rather than cutting public services or social benefits.
 Helsinki University political science lecturer  Tuomas Ylä-Anttila  speculated that the slide to the left was the result of heavy criticism levelled at the policies of the  Juha Sipilä  centre-right administration.
 "For example, the perception has arisen that sote [social and health care] reforms have been crafted based on conditions set by private health care providers and that the competitiveness pact allowed companies to steamroll employees," he noted.
 Work longer or pay more taxes
 Tampere-based daily Aamulehti picks up the employment theme by reporting on  a Finance Ministry working group  looking at ways to increase the employment rate among older folk. The project team has apparently been exploring both carrots and sticks that will either make it more difficult to retire early or promote the benefits of remaining on the job longer.
 The end game is to reduce the number of unemployed people on the books by 10,000 by keeping people at work longer and getting more unemployed people into jobs. The background to the working group's deliberations is Finland's growing life expectancy, which is creating pressure on the state to either raise taxes to pay for services or to cut services.
 In ten years, the employment rate among 60 - 64-year-olds has risen by more than 12 percentage points -- the biggest increase of any age group -- noted  Merja Kauhanen , research coordinator at the Labour Institute for Economic Research. However the working group said that compared to Sweden and Germany, there is still room for improvement.
 Led by finance ministry permanent secretary  Martti Hetemäki , the working group has been pondering the issue since last spring and is due to present its final report very soon.

Thursday's papers: European arrest warrant, pols' liberal shift, golden years at work


Summary: If the election were held now, the SDP would nab 15 more seats for a total of 49 MPs, while the Greens would add 11 for a total of 26.

The opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) continues to consolidate support among voters just one month ahead of parliamentary  elections due in Finland next month , according to a fresh test of voter sentiment.
 Backing for the parliament's largest opposition group rose by 1.2 percentage-points from  a previous poll in February  and now stands at 21.3 percent, outstripping government coalition partners the National Coalition Party (NCP) and Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's Centre Party.
 Voter approval for the NCP fell just over one percentage point to 16.2 percent, the party's weakest performance in four years and the lowest during  Petteri Orpo 's chairmanship. Sipilä's Centre also posted a dubious distinction, with voter support slipping 1.5 percentage points since February to 14.1 percent, the lowest recorded by pollster Taloustutkimus since November 2011.
 The SDP's lead over the NCP is now 5.1 percentage points and it is 7.2 percentage points ahead of the Centre.
 Pre-election boost for Finns Party
 The populist Finns Party posted the biggest gains in Yle's latest poll, capturing the approval of 13.3 percent of voters and building up momentum that began earlier this year and racking up the highest level of approval under  new chair, the immigration hardliner   Jussi Halla-aho . This month's support reflects an increase of 1.3 percentage points over the last survey.
 "People who had previously voted for the Finns Party and who have occasionally been doubtful [about the party] are now restoring their support," said Taloustutkimus research director  Tuomo Turja .
 Before the latest voter survey, the immigration- and EU-sceptic party had been nearly neck-and-neck with the Left Alliance, but it is now challenging the Greens for the position of the country's fourth-most-popular party.
 Meanwhile the Greens, led by  former minister and presidential candidate   Pekka Haavisto , lost nearly a full percentage point of voter sentiment to settle at 13.7 percent backing, while the Left Alliance enjoyed a very marginal boost to register 8.9 percent support.
 Among the smaller parliamentary groups,  the Swedish People's Party  saw support rise to 4.7 percent. Approval for  the Christian Democrats  remained more or less steady at 3.5 percent. The  Blue Reform , which split from the Finns Party two years ago, seems to have failed to capture the imagination of voters, with support languishing at just 1.8 percent in the latest survey.
 NCP bleeding votes to Finns Party, Centre voters abandoning ship
 With undecided or floating voters switching allegiances in the run-up to the 14 April election, anything is still possible. Pollster Turja said that the survey's background data indicate that the Finns Party has managed to attract voters from the sidelines as well as from other parties.
 "The NCP and the Centre are most clearly losing [support] to the Finns Party," he added.
 However the majority of NCP deserters have fled to the Greens, while Centre voters are jumping ship to join a range of other parties, including "the Greens, the Finns Party, the NCP and the SDP...undecided voters are now a challenge for the Centre," Turja remarked.
 One interesting feature of the SDP's performance is not only its high approval rating during the survey period, but also the return of party leader  Antti Rinne  from an extended period of sick leave. Last Friday,  Rinne relieved vice chair   Sanna Marin , who has been  substituting as interim chair  during his absence. The final survey interviews were conducted on Monday and Tuesday, after Rinne's return.
 "This was clearly the weakest period for the SDP in the survey period," Turja pointed out.
 SDP and Greens would grab most additional seats
 Taloustutkimus voter surveys for Yle have made estimates of the number of parliamentary seats parties would have relative to their current representation, based on a calculation of a six-month average of voter support. The calculus indicates that if an election were held now, Orpo's National Coalition would secure four additional seats for a total of 41 MPs in Parliament, although voter support now is significantly lower than during the 2015 general election.
 The data show however, that the SDP and the Greens would post the biggest gains in the legislature. The SDP would nab 15 additional seats, bringing its present complement to 49, while the Greens would add 11 more MPs to seat 26 representatives.
 On the flip side of the coin, if voters went to the polls today, the Centre Party would see its number of MPs plummet from 49 to 36. The Finns Party delegation would only expand from 17 to 21, given that a large number of MPs have left to become part of the breakaway Blue Reform since the 2015 election.
 Researchers interviewed 2,905 respondents between 6 February and 5 March. The poll's margin of error is +/- two percentage points.

Yle poll: Undecided voters drift toward Finns Party, SDP


Summary: After the dismissal of a hijacking charge in a similar case in Jyväskylä, a second busjacking trial has begun in Turku.

A man has gone on trial in Turku, accused of trying to commandeer a bus in Loimaa on 4 December.
 Proceedings began at the District Court of Southwest Finland on Thursday, two days after  another suspect was cleared of hijacking  charges in a similar case dating back to 5 December. Loimaa is some 70km from Turku.
 The Loimaa suspect faces charges of hijacking or attempted hijacking, as well as attempted assault and endangering traffic safety.
 Prosecutors say he grabbed the wheel of a bus and turned it so that the vehicle struck another bus in the opposite lane. The buses were dented, but no-one was injured.
 Suspect "not himself" at the time
 The man did not explain his actions during interrogation. In court, he claimed that he is innocent, denying that he tried to cause an accident, adding that he was "not himself" at the time. He said he was depressed and panicky as his asylum application had just been rejected.
 The suspect boarded the bus without paying his fare, sitting down in the front seat without saying anything. According to the driver, he seemed agitated.
 As the bus was returning from Hirvikoski toward the centre of Loimaa, the suspect suddenly got up and grabbed the steering wheel with both hands. The prosecutor says he tried to change the vehicle's direction of travel.
 The driver pushed the suspect away. He then returned to his seat.
 The bus nearly collided with another bus, but they only grazed each other. The driver says that there was nearly a head-on collision, though. At the time the bus was moving at a speed of 32 kilometres an hour.
 There were six passengers in the first bus, and about 10 school pupils in the oncoming bus.
 Parallel case in Central Finland
 The following afternoon, a similar incident occurred on a bus in the city of Jyväskylä, some 250km away in Central Finland. Authorities had previously described it as taking place in the neighbouring municipality of Uurainen.
 On Tuesday, the District Court of Central Finland dismissed the charge of hijacking against the man, who was born in 1987 and had yelled " Allahu Akbar  (God is great)" while trying to grab the vehicle's steering wheel. Instead he was convicted on a lesser charge of endangerment. He was fined and released.
 The District Prosecutor of Central Finland,  Janna-Maria Meriläinen , said she will monitor the Loimaa trial before deciding whether to appeal the decision in the Jyväskylä case.
 The incidents  took place within 24 hours of each other and both involved men in their 30s described by authorities as being "of foreign background". However police say there is no connection between the cases.

Second bus hijacking case goes to trial after Jyväskylä dismissal


Summary: Green MEP Heidi Hautala denies claims that she tried to water down a resolution targetting the killers of Russian anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

Green MEP  Heidi Hautala  has come under fire for what some perceive as her attempt to attenuate a proposed European Parliament resolution calling for asset freezes and visa denials for more than 30 Russian nationals believed to have played a role in the death of anti-corruption lawyer  Sergei Magnitsky.
 An  article by the online publication the  Daily Beast  referred to leaked emails in which Hautala reportedly lashed out at what she allegedly termed Europe's "obsession" with "targetting" Russian President  Vladimir Putin . It also quoted unnamed sources accusing the Green MEP of opposing the mention of Magnitsky's name in the resolution.
 Petri Sarvamaa , a conservative National Coalition Party MEP and former Yle reporter, commented on the  Daily Beast  article, which takes Hautala to task for allegedly pandering to the interests of Russia. Sarvamaa said in a tweet on Wednesday that he couldn't comment on Hautala's motives for her position on the resolution.
 "I can only confirm that with respect to the matter of naming Magnitsky, Hautala actively pulled in the same direction as the Kremlin," he declared in the same tweet.
 "I mean that it is not in the Kremlin's interests for Magnitsky to be associated with human rights in EU regulations. Russia does not like the EU talking about him," Sarvamaa told Yle.
 "I absolutely do not claim that she is consciously seeking Russia's interests. I only said that in this matter, she [appeared to have] a common interest. I don't know her motives or why she has been so energetic about it," he continued.
 Hautala: "My position is clear"
 Hautala has disputed the accusations reported in the  Daily Beast  that she was playing up to Russia, stressing that she supports the resolution.
 "My position is extremely clear: I fully support the EU's personal sanctions for human rights violations," she told Yle.
 Hautala is one of three MEPs from the Green bloc in the European Parliament who have tabled objections to the proposal.
 "EU directives are not named after private individuals," she declared.
 Sanctioning human rights violations
 Magnitsky was a Russian anti-corruption lawyer specialising in accounting who died in police custody in 2009. Legislation named after him in the US imposes sanctions against Russians suspected of playing a role in his death.
 The Netherlands has suggested that the EU should also introduce similar regulations to apply sanctions in the event of human rights violations. An official working group is currently considering the issue.
 The European Parliament's resolution aims to support these efforts. However no progress has yet been made in drawing up draft regulations.
 MEP Sarvamaa said that any proposed directive should specifically mention Magnitsky, although the regulations would not exclusively target Moscow, but would be applied to similar human rights abuses.
 "It would mostly draw attention and it would send a strong signal from the EU because this is such an infamous case internationally," Sarvamaa added.
 Magnitsky was working for an investment fund run by the US-born financier and economist  Bill Browder  when he was arrested by Russian authorities. Since Magnitsky's death, Browder has campaigned to have similar laws introduced in different countries.
 Browder took note of Hautala's objections to naming the resolution after Magnitsky and also took to Twitter to call her out for her position.

Green MEP accused of pro-Russia bias over anti-corruption resolution


Summary: So far authorities have granted 2,000 permits based on a new exception in the law, while another 2,900 applications are in the pipeline

New rules that  make it possible for 17-year-olds to apply for driver's permits  have proven to be very popular, according to the Uutissuomalainen news consortium.
 Last summer, legislation took effect that relaxed the requirements for obtaining a driver's licence. Previously underage driver's permit applicants needed to lay out particularly weighty reasons to be considered for a license.
 However under the new regulations, few such applications are rejected. Since the introduction of the new regime, authorities have granted more than 2,000 age-related special licenses while another 2,900 are in the pipeline.
 According to Uutissuomalainen, the agency responsible for granting the licences, Traficom, reports a major backlog in applications, with new ones coming in at a rate of about 1,000 per month.
 The new rules allow 17-year-olds to acquire a driver's permit for reasons such as a long school commute or to participate in extra-curricular activities.
 A learner's permit may be granted three months before the applicant's 17th birthday, while a regular driver's test can be completed at the age of 17.

Flood of driver's permit applications from 17-year-olds after legal reform


Summary: The interior minister says Finnish Isis members or their families will get no help in returning to Finland.

The Finnish government is calling for the establishment of an international court in the Middle East to try those who have fought with the terror group Isis. All the Nordic countries back such a move.
 "It's clear that creating such an international court is a long process. But we have examples such as the Yugoslavia court, which has been able to convict perpetrators," Interior Minister Kai Mykkänen said at an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
 Mykkänen says the court should operate like the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague, but admits it would take years to develop.
 Hundreds of ex-Isis combatants and their family members are now in camps in Syria. Mykkänen says they need to be monitored.
 "What's essential is that we limit the risk that they will start moving around Europe freely and causing new problems," he said.
 No help for Isis families
 On Wednesday CNN and other news outlets reported on  a woman in a camp in eastern Syria  who said she was a Finn named Sanna. She said she had gone into Isis territory with her husband and that she has several children and wanted to return to Finland.
 Mykkänen says he has no sympathy for her situation.
 "In the case of Sanna, it is unfortunately so that she made a great mistake in going there to join the ranks of a terrorist organisation," he said.
 Regarding Sanna's children, Mykkänen described the situation as tragic since they did not choose this path for themselves.
 "We don't have any sympathy for those adults who have gone there. They should be sentenced for their crimes, for taking part in and supporting a terror organisation," the minister said.
 He adds that the state of Finland does not intend to help Sanna or her children return to Finland.
 "We have no intention of arranging any return trips for those who have taken part in fighting for Isis," Mykkänen asserted.

Finland seeks international court to try Isis fighters


Summary: The Deputy Prosecutor General's office said it is filing charges against the driver of a military lorry involved in a crash that claimed four lives in 2017.

Finland's Deputy Prosecutor General's office announced on Thursday it is filing charges against the driver of a military lorry when it collided with a light-rail train in Skogby, a village in the southern region of Raseborg in 2017.
 Last September the Western Uusimaa District Prosecutor's office announced that it  did not plan to seek charges , but the deputy prosecutor's office announcement has reversed that decision.
 The crash, which took place at the  end of October 2017 , claimed four lives. Three conscripts who were riding in the off-road lorry and one passenger on the light-rail train died in the crash.
 Eleven others were also injured in the collision. The passenger on the train who died was reported to have suffered from a medical emergency.
 Charges heading to court
 On Thursday the office of the Deputy Prosecutor General announced it is filing criminal charges against the driver of the military transport vehicle - charges including traffic endangerment, three counts of manslaughter and professional misconduct.
 The deputy prosecutor's statement on the case said drivers are expected to be more cautious at level crossings, saying that the driver had an opportunity and should have acted with greater caution.
 The deputy prosecutor's office said it suspects the lorry driver violated traffic safety regulations and traffic laws, actions which it claims resulted in the deaths of three conscripts.
 The Finnish Defence Forces' communications officer Hanna Tallberg would not comment about the charges on Thursday, saying that the matter is a question of an ongoing legal process.

Charges filed in fatal 2017 level crossing crash


Summary: The cuts will affect Nokia workers across the country, with the exception of the firm's Oulu production facility.

Elektroniikan ja sähkölaitteiden valmistus

Radio-, televisio- ja tietoliikennevälineiden valmistus

Finnish technology and networking firm Nokia announced on Thursday that it has completed retrenchment discussions and that 280 of its employees in Finland would lose their jobs.
 The company announced in January that it planned to reduce its payroll, with a view to cutting  up to 350 jobs  at all of its operations in Finland, with the exception of its production plant in the western city of Oulu.
 The cuts are related to the company's broader plans  announced in October  to save some 700 million euros by the end of 2020.
 Nokia said it is offering affected employees the opportunity to participate in a support programme to help them find new jobs, either within the company or, for example in starting their own businesses.

Nokia cutting 280 jobs in Finland


Summary: The head physician at Tampere University Hospital said she has hopes that - like polio - cervical cancer will be completely eliminated in Finland.

A relatively new method that screens for human papillomavirus has been found to be more effective than traditional pap tests, according to experts at Tampere University Hospital.
 A Pap test has been the traditional screening method used to find potentially precancerous and cancerous processes in the cervix, but an HPV test that's increasingly being used in Finland has been found to be more effective in preventing the disease.
 Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in Finland.
 Because the illness can potentially cause several types of cancers, the country implemented a vaccination programme aimed at fighting the disease  in 2013 .
 Since then, girls between 11-12 years of age have received the HPV vaccine, a measure that is expected to significantly reduce the country's cervical cancer rate.
 HPV screening 70% more effective than Pap tests
 Earlier this year, the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) recommended that the vaccination regime  also be extended to boys .
 If that happens,  Johanna Mäenpää , professor and chief physician at University of Tampere and Tampere University Hospital, said that cervical cancer could be eliminated entirely in Finland, in the same way that polio was.
 "But that won't likely happen during my lifetime," Mäenpää told Yle.
 Tampere began offering the HPV test in 2012. Mäenpää said that the results have been good, saying the screenings have significantly helped to identify pre-cancers, compared to Pap tests. She said the new method also helps to track cervical cancer risks.
 "We have calculated that the HPV test is 70 percent more effective than the Pap test, and that's a lot. If an HPV test turns out negative it is unlikely that cancer will develop within the next six to seven years," Mäenpää said.
 The HPV tests are increasingly being used outside of Tampere as well. It has been taken into use in Turku and across south-western Finland, and also recently in the capital region.
 Test increasingly used in Finland
 Clinics at HUSLAB laboratories in southern Finland's Uusimaa and Kymenlaakso regions generally use the HPV tests to screen women above the age of 30 and the traditional Pap tests for younger patients.
 This practice is due to how common HPV is in younger people. Usually the disease clears up on its own, without treatment, according to the lab.
 Starting this year HUSLAB is offering women aged 25-65 screenings at five-year intervals.
 Every year around 165 women are stricken with cervical cancer, most of them between the ages of 30-40. The disease has a 30 percent fatality rate.
 Initial symptoms of cervical cancer - most commonly bleeding after intercourse - generally show up after a tumour has already developed.

HPV test raises hope of cutting cervical cancer risks


Summary: Women’s Day brings news on harsher sex crime penalties and contemplation on female power and money in Finland.

Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee wants to raise the maximum penalty for child sexual abuse to six from four years in prison, reports Swedish-language daily  Hufvudtstadsbladet .
 The move follows several reported  cases of child sexual abuse  investigated by police in Oulu since last November.
 Following up on a citizens’ initiative, the committee also called for increasing minimum terms for aggravated sexual assault on a child from one to two years of incarceration. Committee members urged government to swiftly update Finland’ penal code, especially concerning sex crimes perpetrated against children.
 Legislative power?
 In honour of International Women’s Day, Helsingin Sanomat’s  editorial  draws attention to women’s position in Finland’s Parliament. With 85 seats, Finnish women historically occupied the most seats in the legislature from 2011 to 2015. This number fell by two spots in the current term to a share of 41.5 percent, which is at the lower end of scale for gender balance, according to the national daily.
 At the moment, eight of Finland’s thirteen European Parliament members are women—the highest female share of any EU state.
 Women investors
 Finnish women are increasingly interested in investing, but still do so less than men, writes business magazine  Talouselämä .
 The gender discrepancy between investors in Finland is, however, the smallest in the Nordics. Fresh research by Danske Bank indicates that 42 percent of men and 30 percent of women in Finland invest their money.
 Kaisa Kivipelto , a senior strategist at the retail bank, said women’s smaller salaries in relation to men might curb their investment enthusiasm. However women’s higher life expectancy makes investing a good option for bankrolling their golden years.

Friday’s papers: Tougher sex crime penalties, women MPs and investors


Summary: The government reportedly collapsed over its failed social and health care reform.

President  Sauli Niinistö  on Friday accepted Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä's  offer for the government to resign and asked the cabinet to complete its term in office in an administrative capacity.
 Sipilä planned to ask Niinistö to dissolve the Finnish Parliament on Friday morning, according to a statement from the government, after it became clear parliament would not pass his  flagship healthcare reform  before  elections due in April .
 The government said on its Twitter account that Sipilä would visit the president at his Mäntyniemi residence to tender his government's resignation.
 The government planned to host a press conference at the prime minister's residence, Kesäranta, later Friday morning.
 Yle had previous reported on Friday that the administration's contentious  flagship social and healthcare reform package , colloquially known as "sote" had run into an insurmountable obstacle over proposed regional government elections.
 The regional governments were to take over responsibility from local municipalities for providing social and health care services, a controversial element of which involved increasing the role of private providers.
 News agency Reuters reported Friday that Sipilä intended to offer his government's resignation to the president. The agency quoted the head of the PM's parliamentary group as saying that the resignation was due to the failed healthcare reform.
 National Coalition Party MP  Arto Satonen  told Yle that the situation will not make much difference as the government's term in office was nearly over.
 Finland goes to the polls on 14 April to elect a new government.
 Edit: Updated at 11.10am to affiliate Arto Satonen with the National Coalition Party and not the Centre Party as previously reported.
 More to come.

Govt falls: President asks cabinet to continue in caretaker capacity


Summary: Prime Minister Juha Sipilä told journalists on Friday that he takes responsibility for his actions and that his administration will continue in a caretaker capacity.

Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä  has described the collapse of his government over its failed social and health care reform package, “ sote ”, "a major disappointment.“
 "It's a major disappointment," Sipilä commented on the scuppered reform.
 Speaking to journalists at a news conference on Friday morning, Sipilä noted that the social and health care reform package and its related system of regional government was his administration’s central goal.
 "Our government operates on a 'do or die' principle. You must accept responsibility in politics," he declared.
 The Centre Party chair said that his coalition partners understood his reasons for proposing the government’s resignation.
 "I initially discussed resigning with the President last night and this morning with my government partners," he said. "It was my personal decision," he added.
 "Not enough time"
 Sipilä said that the government would have folded in any event if it failed to push the flagship measure through.
 "The collapse of sote would have led to the government’s resignation, regardless of how much time was left before the election," he disclosed.
 He noted that there was not enough time left in the current government term, regardless of how much effort was expended.
 On Friday morning,  Sipilä tendered his government’s resignation  to President  Sauli Niinistö  once it became clear that the reform measure would not progress through parliament.
 Niinistö accepted the resignation but asked the administration to continue in a caretaker capacity. Sipilä said that if post-election government formation talks extend into Finland’s chairmanship of the European Union – due to begin in July – his administration would be ready to continue as an interim government.

Sipilä: Gov’t resignation was "a major disappointment", a "personal decision"


Summary: The US State Department said that Aro had been "incorrectly" notified that she would receive the prize.

Yle investigative journalist  Jessika Aro  will not receive the International Women of Courage Award in Washington after having been told by the US State Department, which grants it, that she would receive the award.
 The award was to have been presented by US Secretary of State  Mike Pompeo  but the State Department announced that Aro had been “incorrectly” notified that she would receive the prize,  according to US online news publication  Foreign Policy  which broke the story.
 Aro had been formally invited to the award ceremony by the US State Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol in February. Officials later said that she had been nominated for recognition by the US Embassy in Helsinki.
 The news magazine added that officials said that the error was caused by "a lack of coordination in communications with candidates and our embassies".
 However the outlet spoke with US officials who suggested a different narrative, according to which Aro was effectively disinvited because of her sharp criticism of US President  Donald Trump  on Twitter.
 Sources also pointed to the Trump administration’s reluctance to hire experts who had previously denounced the Republican candidate during the 2016 election campaign.
 Death threats, offensive messages
 Aro told Foreign Policy that she had been caught off guard by the decision to cancel the award.
 “[When] I was informed about the withdrawal out of the blue, I felt appalled and shocked,” Aro told FP. “The reality in which political decisions or presidential pettiness directs top U.S. diplomats’ choices over whose human rights work is mentioned in the public sphere and whose is not is a really scary reality.”
 Aro is an award-winning journalist who has written exposés about Russian troll farms and their attempts to influence online discourse. Her work landed her in the crosshairs of Finnish anti-immigrant website MV-lehti and its founder  Ilja Janitskin .
 Last October  Janitskin was sentenced to 22 months in prison  and was also fined along with two other defendants for a welter of charges including aggravated definition and aggravated incitement against an ethnic group.
 Aro, who had also written extensively about MV-lehti, received death threats, offensive messages and threats of sexual violence, prompted by articles posted on Janitskin’s site.
 Janitskin recently  announced a bid for election  to the Finnish Parliament during elections due on 14 April, as well as for the European Parliament in elections scheduled for May. He will run on the ticket of the Seven Star Movement, established by long-time Finnish politician  Paavo Väyrynen .

US pulls award to Yle journalist over Trump critique


Summary: A proposed link between the Estonian and Finnish capitals is set for a boost from China’s Belt and Road initiative.

A private firm looking to construct a  tunnel linking Tallinn and Helsinki  is set to receive some 15 billion euros from a firm helping to advance China’s Belt and Road initiative.
 The money will be provided by Touchstone Capital Partners as and when needed. Roughly one third of the money is an equity investment, with the remaining two thirds to be a loan.
 FinEstBay, the company behind the project, says the project will run from Helsinki Airport to Tallinn airport and include ‘a couple of stations in between’.
 “It’s a relief now we know how our funding plan will look,” said Peter Vesterbacka of FinEstBay. “We’re going full steam ahead and expect trains to be running by Christmas Eve 2024.”
 That challenging timetable has raised eyebrows, with several planning stages including environmental impact studies still to be completed.
 Former Angry Bird Vesterbacka says that FinEstBay will remain majority Finnish-owned.
 “At the moment there is a global discussion in Finland and elsewhere, there is a desire to not have too much Chinese money,” said Vesterbacka.
 FinEstBay had early agreed some 100 million euros of funding from ARJ Holdings.

€15bn Chinese funding deal for Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel


Summary: Political pundit Sini Korpinen joins APN to unpack the government's sudden resignation and examine the Left Alliance's platform ahead of the general election.

By the time APN sat down with political commentator  Sini Korpinen,  Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä   had tendered his government's resignation , citing  the failure of the administration's signature social and health care reform  package. President  Sauli Niinistö  accepted the premier's resignation notice, but asked the cabinet to complete its term in office in an administrative capacity.
 APN asked Korpinen about the potential impact the unexpected resignation could have and why it happened on the cusp of parliamentary elections due in April. She said nothing will probably change before  the general election , which is due on 14 April.
 APN returned to the originally scheduled topic of the day: our party profile of Finland's most leftward-leaning parliamentary party, the Left Alliance. Korpinen said that chair  Li Andersson  and her party still have plenty of work to do to clarify their message as to what they are offering for the future, instead of dwelling in the past.
 For example, as one of the few parties boldly calling for tax hikes to safeguard endangered social services, Korpinen says the Left Alliance should be able to list what it is exactly that Finland's taxpayers will get in return for their money.
 Join in our discussion via social media
 If you have any questions, or would like to share something on your mind with All Points North, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter account, or at yle.news@yle.fi.
 The All Points North podcast is a weekly look at what's going on in Finland. Subscribe via  iTunes  (and leave a review!), listen  on Spotify  and  Yle Areena  or find it on your favourite podcatching app or via our  RSS feed .
 This week's podcast was presented by  Mark B. Odom  and  Zena Iovino.  Our producer was  Pamela Kaskinen ,and our sound engineer was  Tuomas Vauhkonen .

All Points North #43: Govt's unexpected resignation - and Left Alliance election promises


Summary: The report found that a majority of women in management teams were leaders of so-called support functions.

Women’s selection to the boards of stock-listed companies does not translate into more management positions for women, according to an analysis of 2018 data by the Finnish Chambers of Commerce.
 Between 2013 and 2018 women’s representation on the boards of listed companies rose from 23 to 29 percent. At the same time, women increased their presence in management teams from 19 to 25 percent.
 However the report noted that it was not possible to conclude from the data that women’s growing presence in board positions translated into their representation in management teams. It added that the situation varied widely among stock exchange firms.
 According to the central chamber, women’s representation on corporate boards is high by international standards. However it noted that it is important to pay attention to the composition of management groups and women’s career paths as managers in a broader sense.
 "A particular point of concern is the scarcity of women in business leadership positions – the majority of women working at the management level work managing so-called support functions," chamber attorney  Antti Turunen  said in a statement.
 Turunen said that it is time to eliminate separate quotas for men and women.
 "We need significantly more diversified approaches. Society has to dismantle the structural challenges that influence educational choices, combining work and family, as well as the training and career coaching provided to women," he continued.
 The analysis examined all of Finland’s 126 companies with their primary listing on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

Report: Women on boards not reflected in management teams


Summary: Long-standing sote critic Jan Vapaavuori says the reform package that was finally rejected on Friday was a ‘failed exercise’.

Helsinki Mayor Jan Vapaavuori says that he is relieved to hear that the government’s  package of social and healthcare reforms  will not be passed after the government  resigned on Friday . Vapaavuori has long been a critic of the reform, which would have diverted resources from the capital to other regions, but says that the constitutional issues with the legislation were the biggest red flag.
 “I have consistently said it was clear that it would fail,” said Vapaavuori on Friday. “And that for several weeks everyone who can read the constitution has realised that it would fail. But it’s good that we can draw a line under this failed exercise.”
 The National Coalition politician said that he felt the package, which combined a major expansion of private sector involvement with an entirely new layer of regional government, was simply too big to pass and that ‘megareforms’ would be off the agenda for a while.
 “Now we surely understand that we don’t need to get into a panic and build new models, but that we should carefully analyse what has happened and why it went like this,” said Vapaavuori. “Then we’ll calmly take steps in the right direction.”
 The mayor, who repeatedly  joined forces with other municipal leaders  from larger towns and cities to criticise the reforms, said the government was too stubborn in trying to force through its model and that ‘not even the fourth proposal was even close to being constitutional’.
 He denied, however, that this was a personal victory.
 “I think the Finnish people have won,” said Vapaavuori. “As we won’t have a reform that would have taken the country backwards, more towards the past than the future, against all trends in the global economy.”

Helsinki Mayor relieved over ‘failed exercise’ in health reform


Summary: The government granted a long-awaited operating license to the Olkiluoto 3 reactor in western Finland on 7 March.

Finland's government has granted a  long-awaited operating permit  for a third reactor at a plant with two other existing reactors in the western Finland city of Eurojoki. The owner Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) says the new reactor will start adding power to the grid already in January 2020 – 11 years after it was originally planned to start generating electricity.
 The license is a fixed-term one, and will be valid until 2038.
 TVO says that once it is up and running, the third Olkiluoto reactor will generate  15 percent  of Finland's total electricity requirements.
 "This is a historic decision, no doubt. The last time an operating license was granted for a nuclear power plant in Finland was in 1979," Jarmo Tanhua, CEO and President of TVO, said.
 The government made its decision based on a  25 February statement  issued by the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland (STUK) that confirmed the addition to the plant would be safe to operate.
 "Olkiluoto 3 will significantly improve the self-sufficiency of Finland's electricity production and increase the overall share of emissions-free output," Kimmo Tiilikainen, minister of environment, energy and housing, commented.
 Teollisuuden Voima still needs a separate permission from STUK for the loading of the nuclear fuel before the plant can begin operations and connect to the grid.
 Construction of the third Olkiluoto plant, a French-German EPR type reactor, began already back in 2005. With a rated output of 1,600 megawatts, it will be one of the world's largest nuclear reactors.
 In December 2012, the French multi-national building contractor,  Areva , estimated that the full cost of building the reactor will end up being about 8.5 billion euros, almost three times the original estimated delivery price of 3 billion euros. Planning, supervision, and workmanship delays have been widespread at the site.
 The addition of a third reactor to the Olkiluoto plant will reduce Finland's electricity imports, and some predict it will augur a decrease in electricity prices in Finland.

Third Olkiluoto nuclear reactor granted operating license