Summary: President Sauli Niinistö has sworn in Finland's new centre-left government, which has a female majority.

SDP chair  Antti Rinne , 56, was sworn in as prime minister on Thursday to lead Finland's 75th government. Rinne, whose Social Democratic Party narrowly won April's election, is a former finance minister and union boss.
 He was approved as the new premier by a vote of 111 to 74 in a Parliamentary session that began around noon, with Rinne serving as interim Speaker of Parliament. Fourteen of the new MPs were absent.
 All the 'no' votes came from the three main opposition parties, with the sole MP from the Liike Nyt (Movement Now) group voting with the five government parties.
 Story continues after photo
 Rinne was elected by a 111-74 vote. Jussi Nukari / Lehtikuva
 After the vote, Rinne and the 18 other cabinet ministers walked to the Presidential Palace to meet with President  Sauli Niinistö .
 At 2pm, the president approved the resignation of outgoing PM and Centre Party chair  Juha Sipilä  and then formally appointed Rinne as the new prime minister. The new ministers were then sworn in, using either Finnish or Swedish and either a Bible or law book, according to their own preferences.
 Earlier on Thursday, Rinne met with Niinistö and was formally appointed to form a new government.
 Story continues after photo
 Rinne met with Niinistö on Thursday morning. Jussi Nukari / Lehtikuva
 On Friday MPs will elect the new Speaker of Parliament and two deputy speakers. The new Speaker is expected to be former Centre PM  Matti Vanhanen , 63. Former minister  Tuula Haatainen  of the SDP is to continue as the first deputy speaker while  Juho Eerola  of the Finns Party will likely become the second deputy speaker.
 Comfortable majority in Parliament
 Rinne aims to lead a five-party centre-left coalition government for the next four years. Besides the SDP and Centre, it includes the Greens, the Left Alliance and the Swedish People's Party.
 The cabinet parties have a comfortable 117-seat majority in the 200-seat Parliament.
 However they will likely face pressures from within as well as from the two main opposition parties, the right-leaning Finns Party and National Coalition Party. They each have nearly as many MPs as the SDP, wit the top three parties holding 40, 39 and 38 seats respectively. The nationalist Finns Party, led by immigration hardliner  Jussi Hallo-aho , is just one seat shy of being the largest and has been leading opinion polls since the election.
 One holdover from Sipilä cabinet
 About 58 percent of the ministers in Rinne's cabinet are women. That is up sharply from the previous Sipilä government, but still short of the 60 percent ratio in Vanhanen's 2007-10 cabinet.
 Story continues after photo
 Cabinet ministers walked to the House of the Estates on Helsinki's warmest day of the year so far. Pekka Tynell / Yle
 The new ministers range in age from 31 to 61. The youngest is Minister of Economic Affairs  Katri Kulmuni , a second-term MP and deputy Centre Party chair from Tornio in Finnish Lapland, while the eldest is Foreign Minister  Pekka Haavisto , an MP, Greens chair and former minister from Helsinki.
 The only minister to carry over from Sipilä's cabinet to Rinne's is Centre Party MP  Annika Saarikko . She moves from being Minister of Family Affairs and Social Service to Minister of Science and Culture, a newly-renamed post that operates under the Ministry of Education.
 Lintilä represents Centre at press conference
 In the late afternoon, the new government held a brief press conference at the House of the Estates, where they had hashed out their agenda over the past month.
 Story continues after photo
 Henriksson, Lintilä, Rinne, Haavisto and Andersson meet the press. Pekka Tynell / Yle
 Four of the five parties were represented by their chairs, while the Centre was represented by Finance Minister  Mika Lintilä . Party chair Sipilä, who is  to be replaced as leader in September , declined to take a post in the new government or parliament.
 Besides Rinne and Haavisto, the two other party chairs in the cabinet are  Anna-Maja Henriksson  of the Swedish People's Party, who returns as Justice Minister, and  Li Andersson  of the Left Alliance, who is now Education Minister.
 The ministers only answered a couple of questions about the timing of eldercare reforms and attaining their 75-percent employment target, giving rather non-committal answers. They then headed for the traditional 'class picture' photograph session and coffee reception.
 5:56pm: Updated throughout and corrected date of Speakers' election

Antti Rinne appointed Finland's new PM


Summary: Of nearly 10,000 victims involved in reports to authorities last year, more than three quarters were women.

Last year there were 9,900 cases of domestic violence and intimate partner violence offences reported to Finnish authorities, which is a 3.6 percent increase compared to 2017, according to Statistics Finland. Intimate partners are current or former spouses or partners in an intimate relationship.
 Men were most commonly suspected of domestic or intimate partner violence, with nearly 78 percent of suspects being male.
 "The statistics only include cases reported to the authorities, [and] by no means all cases of domestic violence and intimate partner violence are reported to the authorities," the agency said on Thursday.
 Last year, the National Institute for Health and Welfare, THL, reported that 130,000 people in intimate relationships had been  victims of violence .
 The statistics agency said that domestic violence between married and divorced couples increased by nearly four percentage points, with 200 more cases in 2018 than the previous year - with 5,400 such cases reported to authorities.
 One-fifth recurrent victims
 Overall, the number crunching agency said that 37.5 percent of domestic violence and intimate partner violence in 2018 was between married or cohabiting couples, representing a 1.4 percentage point increase over the previous year.
 Around 2,400 of the victims were under the age of 18, accounting for one quarter of all domestic violence incidents reported to police.
 The share of underage victims has risen over the past several years (from 18% in 2009 to 25% in 2018), but the agency attributed part of that increase to amendments in the Child Welfare Act, "which extended the reporting obligation in cases where an offence against a child's life or health is suspected."
 However, nearly 1,000 minors were victims of violence over the course of several years, according to the agency.
 About one fifth of the 9,900 reported incidents - or around 1,500 people - had been victims more than once during 2018.
 Roughly 1,200 adult victims of repeated violence were reported to authorities, 84 percent of them women.

Increase in reported domestic violence cases in Finland


Summary: Children's Ombudsman Elina Pekkarinen says things look "very promising" for Finland's young families.

Finland's Ombudsman for Children  Elina Pekkarinen  says the tenets of  Antti Rinne 's government programme that affect families with young children look "very promising," as they promise to improve the levels of wellbeing in this segment of the population.
 Rinne's five-party coalition's agenda looks as if it will improve the status of families, she says, differing substantially from the savings measures enforced by the previous government.
 "They have taken a comprehensive stand on and hold of the implementation of children's rights by pledging to create a National Strategy for Children, for example," Pekkarinen comments.
 The Ombudsman says she was consulted on several occasions by Rinne and other government negotiators while they were drawing up the agenda.
 The following is a list of six government programme components that are forecast to improve the lives of children and families with young children over the next four years.
 1. Smaller day care groups, cancellation of limitations
 Former PM  Juha Sipilä 's coalition approved a change to the law in 2016 that limited subjective day care rights for families with an unemployed parent, for example. Rinne's government has made it clear that it will roll back this limitation and restore "the full-time subjective right to early childhood education". It has also indicated that it will reduce group sizes in day cares for children under the age of three.
 Several  municipalities , Helsinki and Tampere included, had earlier made the decision not to implement the 2016 reform. Associated plans in this area include a pilot providing early childhood education to two-year-olds, and expanding free part-time early childhood education to five-year-olds.
 2. Child benefit increases for some
 Rinne's government programme has also outlined 10-euro monthly child benefit increases for single-parent households and families with more than four children.
 3. Family leave reform
 One objective included in the incoming government's platform is to distribute child care responsibility better between both parents. Although several methods will be employed to promote this, a central change will be an effort to split any state-assisted child care leaves evenly between mothers and fathers.
 At present, the approximately six-month parental leave that Finland pays to a parent caring for a new child at home is distributed unevenly: with mothers typically receiving 105 days (some four months) of compensation, while fathers typically are entitled to nine weeks (or just over two months) of leave. Fathers can elect to take part of this leave period consecutively with the mother.
 The new government agenda seeks to lengthen the leave period fathers usually take without shortening mothers' leave periods. Sweden made a similar decision a few years ago.
 The cabinet also promises to look into the possibility of child care allowances being paid to grandparents who take care of children.
 4. Free upper secondary school, compulsory school age increased to 18
 The new administration says it will raise the compulsory school age to 18 and  make secondary-level education free of charge  in order to make it available to every pupil who has finished the preceding level. Among other things, the changes are meant to dismantle thresholds that exclude members of families living in poverty by covering the cost of books and equipment, for instance.
 Several new techniques will also be employed to improve access to upper secondary schools, including multiple forms of support, diversification of study methods, an extra "tenth year" for pupils that might need more support, as well as the expansion of the adult education centre network and other preparatory training options.
 Rinne's government also indicated that it would like to copy "the Icelandic Model," which guarantees an extracurricular activity or sport for every young person as part of their school day.
 5. Added resources for promoting young people's wellbeing
 The new government programme aims to improve social services for young people in Finland by increasing child protection resources. The aim is to reduce the client-to-professional ratio in this area to 35 by the year 2022, and eventually reach a target ratio of 30 to 1.
 Service improvements at maternity clinics, student services and preventative health care are also planned, and easing access to the child home care allowance was also made a priority.
 6. Creating a National Strategy for Children
 Children's Ombudsman Pekkarinen praises the new cabinet's commitment to draw up a National Strategy for Children in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
 Among other things, the strategy would contain information on budgeting for children, assessment of policy impacts on children, and ways support and services can be evaluated for their 'child and family friendliness'. Once the strategy is complete, municipalities, commerce and the third sector are expected to commit to it.
 The incoming government's programme mentions the possibility of a number of financial constraints that could influence how many of its planned changes come to fruition. For example, the funding of additional initiatives is largely dependent on the coalition reaching its goal of 75 percent employment and continued growth of the economy.

6 ways new gov’t agenda seeks to help families with children


Summary: Authorities say the AI-based technology can help to expedite criminal investigations.

Finnish Police and Customs were granted permission to use automatic facial recognition technology at the beginning of June. The Finnish Border Guard has had the right to use this tech since 2005.
 The use of facial ID tech, enabled in Finland by a  surveillance law  approved earlier this year, allows authorities to compare people's faces captured by surveillance cameras to images of individuals stored in official databases.
 According to Finland's recently updated data protection act, however, facial recognition tech can only be used by law enforcement agencies to prevent, detect or investigate crimes — or to reach wanted suspects.
 Police claim that  investigations can be carried out more quickly  when such images are screened by computers rather than humans, and Customs director  Sami Rakshit  said he shared that opinion.
 "Our view is that the new system will make it easier for people to search through a stream of passengers," Rakshit said.
 Permit in place, but tech not up to date
 Authorities said that despite having the permission to use the software, Finland's current tech infrastructure doesn't yet support the use of automatic facial recognition. Currently, humans — and not artificial intelligence programs — handle surveillance camera images, according to the police and customs.
 "Of course, we have cameras, but they don’t automatically identify anyone. We don’t have face recognition technology in our cameras yet," inspector  Pekka Sallinen  from the National Police Board of Finland said.
 "Our camera equipment is being gradually updated to enable biometric face identification," Rakshit added.
 While the Finnish Border Guard has had the rights to use face recognition tech for years, they said its scope has been limited.
 "Automatic face detection is not yet available for large-scale use. We use it to the extent it makes sense to do so. This is an emerging technology field that will continue to develop," the head of the Border Guard's border control unit, Lieutenant Colonel  Tuomas Laosmaa  said, adding he did not want to reveal how the technology was used, as it is a "tactical and technical secret".
 Big brother monitoring?
 Liisa Mäkinen,  a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Turku, studies the use of surveillance cameras and said she is concerned about the developments in Finland.
 Story continues after photo.

 "We are a long ways away from becoming an Orwellian society" Yle
 "It's two completely different things to use surveillance cameras to monitor public disturbances versus using a system that can identify people from images and match them to information in existing databases," she said.
 However, inspector Sallinen who said he constantly encounters talk of "Big Brother" constantly monitoring citizens, said Finland is nowhere close to such a world.
 "We are a long ways away from becoming an Orwellian society, where people can be controlled with cameras," he said.
 "This won't impact ordinary people"
 Some experts and citizens in the country have been reportedly wary of the use of face recognition tech — for instance, the small Pirate Party has expressed concern about the threat of losing privacy in the past. Researcher Mäkinen approved of people's wariness on the matter.
 "I think it is good that citizens are critical of [issues like] who has access to the data, where the information will be used and how these are combined. I think it's good to ask such questions" Mäkinen said.
 She also said there is no clear evidence of camera surveillance regularly helping to carry out criminal investigations. "Research on this is very contradictory. In some cases, camera surveillance may be useful, but not always," Mäkinen added.
 However, according to Rakshit, automatic face recognition is only used for crime prevention and investigation and said the new permissions granted in June do not undermine citizens' legal protections.
 "All of the material is entirely in our possession. Camera- or system-vendors do not have access to the captured images. The law amendment won’t largely impact lives of ordinary people because we do not save their images. Citizens' legal protection will improve as government action can better target the right people," he said.

Finnish police, customs now able to use facial ID tech, but infrastructure not in place


Summary: The SDP's Antti Rinne smoothly steered the five-party coalition toward assuming the mantle of government, APN's pundits said.

Social Democratic Party chair  Antti Rinne  has blossomed into what appears to be an expert negotiator who led disciplined and smooth talks to form Finland's new five-party coalition, according to political commentator  Sini Korpinen  and world politics professor  Teivo Teivainen .
 Dubbed the "Famous Five" by Swedish People's Party  Anna-Maja Henriksson,  the new cabinet was  sworn into office  by President  Sauli Niinistö  on Thursday afternoon, bringing an end to weeks of discussions involving Rinne's SDP, the Centre Party led by former PM  Juha Sipilä ,  Pekka Haavisto 's Green Party, the Left Alliance led by  Li Andersson , and the SPP.
 Following a  parliamentary election in April , Korpinen had tapped  Petteri Orpo' s National Coalition Party to join a Rinne-led administration. However Teivainen observed that the parties proved to be too far apart on key issues to allow them to cooperate in government.
 Korpinen noted that while the Centre Party may have had to concede ground on some issues, it did emerge a winner as it is still in government and was also able to push through its goal of creating 18 regional administrations to deliver social and health care services as part of  an ambitious reform package .
 Boost for Haavisto's possible presidential aspirations
 With Rinne as premier, the Centre's  Mika Lintilä , a former economic affairs minister, will assume the finance minister portfolio, while the Greens' Haavisto will be foreign minister. Teivainen noted that Haavisto will be surfing the Green wave that characterised the Finnish general election as well as  recent European Parliament elections . Finnish foreign policy will more closely resemble EU foreign policy, particularly on climate issues, he added.
 According to Teivainen, as a skilled and well-respected international negotiator, Haavisto's foreign minister portfolio could well help set up another presidential election bid for the Greens chair.
 With the Finns Party now the largest party in opposition, Teivainen said voters can expect to see chair  Jussi Halla-aho  adopt an even tougher stance on immigration as well as on social welfare issues. Korpinen said that if the NCP, which is now also occupying opposition benches, finds common ground with the Finns Party, it could drive more liberal NCP voters toward the Greens.
 APN returns in autumn
 All Points North will take a break for the summer. However if you have any questions, or would like to share something on your mind, just contact us via WhatsApp on +358 44 421 0909, on our Facebook or Twitter accounts, 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 presenters were  Denise Wall  and  Mark B. Odom . The episode was produced by  Priya Ramachandran D'souza  and the audio engineer was  Mikko Majanen.

All Points North #57 - The "Famous Five" begin their four-year government adventure


Summary: Local press are predicting that the new government will have difficulties delivering on all of its promises.

Farmers' union paper  Maaseudun Tulevaisuus  says the country's  new Prime Minister ,  Antti Rinne  – the first Social Democrat PM the country has seen in 16 years – has no plans to move to Kesäranta, the picturesque wooden villa in Helsinki's Meilahti district that acts as the official residence of the prime minister. He instead plans to continue living in Mäntsälä, a town some 60 kilometres north of the capital city, with his wife  Heta .
 A new Speaker of the Parliament will be named Friday and the MT delves into disagreement brewing over the appointment. It seems the government parties have interpreted the tradition of awarding the seat to the second largest party as meaning the second largest party in government, and has recommended former Centre Party leader and two-time PM  Matti Vanhanen  for the position. The Finns Party, on the other hand, has contested this logic, saying that as the party that came in second overall in the April elections, a representative of the Finns Party should be given the job.
 "Simple mathematics"
 Weekly Suomen Kuvalehti features an  editorial  from  Jarmo Raivio  saying that the new government programme can be boiled down to two sentences. "Enact a 1.2-billion-euro increase in state expenditures while keeping public finances in balance".
 He predicts problems with this equation, as the 75-percent employment rate that is necessary to fuel the agenda will be hard to reach in an increasingly sluggish economy. Raivio says it also comes down to "simple mathematics", as the task to find more people jobs will become more difficult as the target grows more ambitious. Former PM  Juha Sipilä 's government managed to push the rate to 72, but now many of the best carrots and sticks have been used and the "people who find it very hard to secure employment" are the only ones left without work.
 Early infighting
 Helsingin Sanomat  covers  a statement from the new Green Party environment and climate minister  Krista Mikkonen , who before she was officially appointed as minister, said that she doesn't think it's "probable" that all of the  pulp mill investment projects  in the pipeline will end up being implemented.
 Appearing on a morning television interview on Thursday, Mikkonen added that "there aren't enough trees", because the government must also consider its climate and diversity targets.
 The paper notes that specific numbers about how many cubic metres of forest can be harvested in Finland were a major sticking point between the Greens and the rural-backed Centre Party during government formation talks. No specific targets were included in the final version of the government agenda, but the coalition did promise that Finland would be carbon neutral by the year 2035, a vow that made  headlines  in the international press.
 Centre Party politicians wasted no time in registering their indignation, with one MP accusing Mikkonen of sabotaging the government proposal straight out of the gate. After she was sworn in as minister, Mikkonen was asked to comment on the reaction. She said she stood by her comments.
 Swimming season has started!
 Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat runs a  story  on how quickly inland lakes have warmed up, due to the balmy summer weather Finland has been enjoying.
 Measurement of several inland lakes to a depth of 20 centimetres found that water temperatures were already approaching 20 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees higher than average for this time of year.
 The Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, found the warmest lake water in the lakes of Päijänne and Tuusulanjärvi in central and southern Finland, respectively.
 The tabloid says that many eager outdoor swimmers may have to sit out the weekend, as thunderstorms move over many central and northern areas of the country, but if sunny skies are back next week, no one will have an excuse to not "throw off their winter fur", as the Finnish saying goes, and jump in a lake for a swim.

Friday's papers: Rinne chooses Mäntsälä, Greens and Centre already at odds, warm lake water


Summary: The populist Finns Party appears to be benefitting more from being in the opposition than the National Coalition Party.

Yle’s latest political barometer, which comes on the heels of  the swearing in of a new government  led by Social Democratic Party chair  Antti Rinne , shows little change from a previous post-election poll. The new PM’s party enjoys the support of 17.4 percent of the electorate, down by a negligible 0.4 percentage points from a previous poll. All of the changes in the new survey were well within the two-percent-point margin of error.
 The new voter approval survey shows the outgoing PM  Juha Sipilä ’s Centre Party with greatest movement of all of the major political parties – albeit downward by 0.9 percentage points – settling at 12.4 percent backing and continuing a months-long slippage.
 On the other end of the spectrum, the nationalist Finns Party posted the biggest gains, with support rising 0.7 percentage points to 19.5 percent. It is now Finland’s most popular political party with a lead of more than two percentage points over the second place SDP.
 "New Finns Party supporters have woken up this time around, meaning that they didn’t vote in the elections. But if we consider this party, it is mainly stripping backing from the Centre Party," Taloustutkimus research director  Jari Pajunen  said.
 Greens see spike in ex-chair's hometown, Turku
 Meanwhile Foreign Minister  Pekka Haavisto ’s Green Party overtook the Centre to occupy fourth place in the poll with 13.9 percent backing. Former Greens chair  Ville Niinistö ’s successful run for an MEP seat was reflected in the poll results, which showed strong spike in support for the party in Niinistö’s hometown, Turku, Pajunen noted.
 Taloustutkimus gathered responses for the survey during government formation talks involving the SDP, Centre, Greens, Left Alliance and the Swedish People’s Party, with the last of the responses recorded on Tuesday.
 This means that the poll does not reflect possible reaction to  the government agenda , which was formally announced on Monday. All the same, the new government coalition enjoys a combined level of support of 56 percent of voters.
 Now in opposition, the National Coalition Party led by former finance minister  Petteri Orpo  holds third place in the survey with 16.7 percent voter approval. Relegation to the opposition benches does not appear to have boosted the party’s popularity, but may have been a disappointment to supporters, the pollster speculated.
 Similarly, the Left Alliance did not appear to benefit from its participation in coalition formation talks as just eight percent of voters backed it. Voter enthusiasm for the party now stands at 7.8 percent, making it the first time since last summer that backing has fallen below eight percent.
 Voters bolder about declaring support
 However, another junior government party, the Swedish People's Party, did enjoy a slight, 0.5-percentage-point bump in voter support to arrive at 4.5 percent voter approval.
 Backing for the Christian Democrats remained almost steady at 3.6 percent, while the one-MP party Movement Now registered 1.7 percent voter support.
 The Blue Reform, which splintered from the Finns Party in 2017, did not see any MPs re-elected to parliament, so it does not appear in the poll.
 As was the case one month ago, a larger than usual proportion of respondents – more than 76 percent compared to the usual 60-odd percent – were prepared to disclose their party affiliations.
 According to Taloustutkimus voters’ readiness to declare their intentions increased during the April parliamentary election and the European Parliament election that took place in May.

Yle poll: Finns Party's lead grows, Centre leaks more support


Summary: One researcher drew a straight line from weaker links with the church to the fall in the number of babies being baptised.

Finland’s Lutheran Evangelical Church has recorded the lowest number of babies being baptised since the institution began tracking the statistics, according to the eastern Finland daily Savon Sanomat.
 The paper reported on Friday that the proportion of newborns getting baptised began to fall after 2000, in line with a decline in church membership.
 Before 2000, the proportion of newborn babies baptised hovered around 90 percent nationwide. However the percentage has dropped by more than 20 percentage points over nearly 20 years since then.
 Researcher Veli-Matti Salminen of the Church Research Institute said that there is a direct link between weaker relations with the church and the fact that people think that church membership is a purely personal matter.
 The number of newly-baptised children fell short of the number of church members for the first time in 2014 and has since then fallen faster than church membership. The state-backed Lutheran church also relies on membership contributions collected as a tax on income.
 Legal reforms, politics, same-sex marriage test members
 Back in 2005, officials attributed an accelerated falloff in church membership to  new legislation that allowed people to quit the institution immediately , rather than wait for one month before their resignations took effect.
 Officials also speculated that people were less enthusiastic about paying one percent of their annual income in parish taxes to the state-supported church.
 There was another spike in departures from the church in 2013, following broad opposition to statements by then-Interior Minister and Christian Democratic Party chair Päivi Räsänen, who  spoke of abortion as butchery in a speech  and also suggested that the bible could supersede the law of the land.
 The church's position on same-sex marriage also tested members’ faith, particularly after  parliament passed legislation legalising gender-neutral marriage  in Finland.
 At the same time, the church also lost members displeased when former Archbishp Kari Mäkinen expressed support for marriage equality  in a television interview  in 2014.

Daily: Fewer parents baptising babies as church membership declines


Summary: On Wednesday, another defendant received a three-year sentence after conviction on similar charges involving the same victim.

The Oulu district court has convicted a 29-year-old man for the sexual abuse of a minor, who was 13 years-old at the time the offences were committed.
 The court sentenced the defendant,  Javad Mirzad , to three years and four months in prison after he was found guilty of aggravated child sexual abuse.
 The court found that the offences occurred at a private residence in the Oulu region last August and that the victim and the defendant had been in contact via a messaging service.
 The conviction is the fourth in a series of similar cases in which the same 13-year-old girl is believed to have suffered abuse at the hands of of eight different foreign-background men between June and October last year. On Wednesday, another defendant -- a 22-year-old man --  received a three-year sentence after conviction on similar charges .
 Defendant likely to appeal
 Oulu district prosecutor  Kaisa Kytömäki  said that she hadn’t fully reviewed the court’s arguments for the sentence, but remarked that it was in line with previous sentencing handed down in the series of related cases, adding that it aligned well with the prosecutor’s demands.
 "The sentence appears to be well-reasoned," she continued.
 Defence attorney  Heikki Aspegren  said that he had not yet spoken with his client, but told Yle that he believed that they would appeal the sentence.
 "There is justification for an appeal. The prison sentence seems rather long. I believe that the sentence has been a disappointment for my client," Aspegren added.
 Tabloid daily Iltalehti reported on Friday that the defendant denied the charges against him and told the court that he believed the girl was 16. In Finland, the legally-defined age of consent is 16.
 Edit 7.6.2019 The original headline erroneously stated that the sentence was 30 months.

Court hands down 40-month prison sentence in 4th Oulu child sex abuse case


Summary: The Orivesi gold mine was denied an environmental permit after a nearby lake's fish and crayfish populations were decimated.

Finland's Supreme Administrative Court has rejected an appeal by the Australian company Dragon Mining. The firm had earlier decided to discontinue its gold mining activities in the municipality of Orivesi.
 Previous rulings from the Vaasa District Court and regional authorities denied the mining company an environmental permit, citing significant damage to the surrounding waterways caused by the mine's operations. The fish and crayfish population of Lake Ala-Jalkajärvi was destroyed, for example.
 Dragon Mining appealed the earlier decisions because it wanted to continue its operations, while the local government ELY Centre petitioned for a temporary environmental permit in order to wind down the operations in a controlled fashion.
 The Supreme Administrative Court dismissed both appeals, saying Dragon Mining had not applied for an environmental permit to wind things down, but in order to continue mining.
 Dragon Mining will now be responsible for submitting a plan within six months of the decision coming into effect, detailing how the surrounding waterways and land will be protected and waste will be handled. Once this plan has been submitted, the regional authorities will make a decision about closing the mine.
 Illegal dumping ground under investigation
 The gold mine in Orivesti began operations in the 1990s. The Finnish steel manufacturer Outokumpu was the original owner, but gave up its mining activities in 2003. The mine was reopened in 2007 under the current ownership.
 Orivesi produced some 17,000 kilos of gold concentrate during these two periods. The ore was processed at a plant in Vammala, 80 kilometres southwest of the mine.
 The mine has made  headlines  several times since Dragon Mining took over the operations. For example, in October 2018, the local ELY Centre discovered an illegal dumping ground in the area. The rubbish collection point contained oil barrels, explosive boxes, plastic materials and scrap metal. A police investigation into the infraction is still in progress.
 Dragon Mining announced in the spring that it would be discontinuing its operations at the Orivesi mine. The company said at the time that the ore reserves at the Orivesi mine had already been almost exhausted.
 "Mining of ore will continue as planned at the company's other mines in Valkeakoski and Huittinen, and at the ore processing centre in Vammala. The [court] decision will not have any effect on the company's production plans," said Dragon Mining's mining manager in Finland,  Petteri Tanner .

Gold mine to shut down after court denies appeal


Summary: A new study that investigated substance residence found in returned syringes revealed that intravenous drug use is high in the country.

Amphetamine, methamphetamine and buprenorphine are by far the most common drugs used intravenously, according to a study of substance residues found in drug syringes returned to health advisory centres. The study included only five different syringe return points in Helsinki, but according to National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), the findings corroborate the situation in the whole of Finland.
 Earlier this year, THL carried out wastewater tests to find that residents used well over  300kg of amphetamines in 2018.
 The study also found regional drug preferences within Helsinki — the proportion of amphetamine use was higher closer to the centre, but in Eastern Helsinki, buprenorphine was on an average, more prevalent. Buprenorphine, a central nervous system depressant, is also sold under the brand name Subutex.
 No heroin found in Helsinki
 The findings revealed that no heroin was found in any of the returned drug syringes that were tested. "The drug situation in Finland differs significantly from many other European countries where the most common injected drugs are heroin and cocaine,"  Teemu Gunnar , Head of Forensic Toxicology Unit at THL, said in the release.
 The needles and syringes used in the study were randomly picked from social and health counselling points from across Helsinki. This was the first time that a multinational research was carried out with this new methodology of investigating intravenous drug use.
 While THL was responsible for the research in Finland, other countries that participated include France, Holland, Switzerland, Hungary and Scotland.
 Cocaine hits the streets
 Meanwhile, cocaine availability is at an all-time high in Europe, according to the  2019 drug report released by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)  in June. In 2017, a record 140,000 kilos of cocaine was seized in the EU — double the number in 2016.
 The use of cocaine is on the rise in Finland too, according to authorities. “Not only has the use increased, but the reach of the drug is geographically wider. For instance, the drug has been observed in Rovaniemi,” senior researcher at National Bureau of Investigation  Jari Leskinen  said.
 Cocaine use is rising in Finland. AOP
 "Cocaine in the market is purer than before. But the biggest change is that cocaine can be bought from street vendors too now," added Leskinen.
 However, compared to other Nordic countries where cocaine use is higher, Finland's choice of hard drugs is amphetamine, methamphetamine and ecstasy.
 "In the Finnish drug culture, there is a significantly higher rate of abuse of prescription medication than in the rest of the EU. Drugs such as opioids and amphetamines are injected more here than other countries," Senior Planning Officer  Sanna Rönkä  from THL said.
 Finland — 7th higest number of drug deaths in EU
 According to the EMCDDA drug report, Finland has the seventh highest number of drug deaths in the EU, relative to population. Most drug deaths are reported in northern European countries — Estonia, Sweden, Norway, UK, Ireland, Denmark and Finland.
 In Finland overdose deaths are most commonly associated with the use of buprenorphine, alcohol and benzodiazepines whereas elsewhere in Europe, overdose deaths are mostly caused by heroin.
 It was reported in 2018 that drug poisoning is one of the  leading cause of death among men under 40 in Finland.  There were 194 deaths due to drug overdose in 2016 — 77 percent of which were men — according to EMCDDA, based on data provided by Statistics Finland.

Amphetamine still Finland’s drug of choice, cocaine gaining ground


Summary: The Centre Party MP takes up the position nine years after resigning as PM.

Parliament convened on Friday to elect a speaker and deputy speakers for the new four-year parliamentary term, choosing MPs from the Centre, SDP and Finns Parties for the roles.
 Matti Vanhanen of the Centre took the top job, with SDP MP  Tuula Haatainen  and Finns Party legislator  Juha Eerola  chosen as deputies.
 The National Coalition Party (NCP) protested at being left outside the speakership by abstaining from the confirmatory vote. By convention the speaker comes from the second-largest party, with his or her deputies providing a balance.
 In the last parliamentary term however, all three spots went to government parties--which were also the three largest parties in parliament.
 This time round the Finns Party had demanded that the speakership be a Finns Party MP, as they are the second largest group of MPs in parliament.
 Discussion culture
 In his acceptance speech Vanhanen touched on the more direct style of political debate that has emerged in recent years.
 “Our century-old form of government is currently producing some creative tension between the government and parliament,” said the 63-year-old. “Let’s use that for the common good. As speaker I will work to advance a culture of debate in which differences of opinion are not hidden, but we value others’ motives and avoid deliberate misunderstandings.”
 He also expressed the hope that MPs would reform the workings of committees in parliament.
 In her speech, Haatainen said that she hoped parliament would provide a good example of a culture of discussion and debate, and that MPs should respect one another and remember that parliament is a workplace.
 Eerola, on the other hand, said that stressing hate speech had the effect of restricting freedom of speech.
 Vanhanen took 141 votes in the closed ballot, with 39 abstensions. Three candidates got one vote each and two ballot papers were rejected.
 Comeback kid
 A political veteran who was once voted ‘sexiest man in Finland’ by readers of a gossip magazine, Vanhanen was first elected to parliament in 1991 before resigning his seat in 2010 along with the post of Prime Minister after a bruising campaign financing scandal.
 He ran for president in 2018 but didn’t make the second round, polling just 4.1 percent of the vote.
 In other parliamentary business, the Centre Party group elected  Antti Kurvinen  as its leader, replacing  Antti Kaikkonen  who will be Defence Minister in the new government. The Left Alliance chose  Paavo Arhinmäki  to lead its MPs replacing  Aino-Kaisa Pekonen  who has been named as the minister in charge of social affairs and health.
 The Swedish People’s Party’s MPs will be led by  Anders Adlercreutz , while the Finns Party has nominated  Mika Niikko  to lead the Foreign Affairs committee.

Ex-PM Vanhanen elected speaker of parliament


Summary: As of 2016, migrants have started nearly 4,000 businesses in Finland,  most of which are in the private services sector.

Helpful tips for budding entrepreneurs Do your marker research and work on a comprehensive business plan. Sign up with the trade register and the tax register. Any company/freelancer with annual turnover exceeding 10,000 euros must pay Value-added tax (VAT) of 24% to the state. Entrepreneur pension insurance (YEL)  is compulsory, but depending on your sector, you may have to sign up for additional ones — patient insurance, environment insurance, traffic insurance, etc. Check with local banks and pension providers for offers. Reach out to organisations like  Startup Refugees ,  Finnish Enterprise Agencies (Uusiyrityskeskus ),  NewCo Helsinki ,  Federation of Finnish Enterprises (Suomen Yrittäjät)  for free services, events and specific guides for different sectors. Approach your local municipality for help — even the smallest of towns employ at least one person to serve entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs in certain sectors are required to obtain permits including occupational safety card, hygiene passport, etc. Entrepreneurs are eligible for a  startup grant  of nearly 700 euros, pre-tax.
 Even as immigrants turn to entrepreneurship, foreign-background business owners in Finland say it's a daunting path to navigate.
 "I was told everyone communicates through email and you need an appointment to get in touch with anyone here. But on a friend’s advice, I printed out my CV, walked into restaurants where I aspired to work and asked to see the chefs. I didn’t land a job, but I definitely made myself known among the head chefs of high-end restaurants," said food designer  Vahid Mortezaei , who now runs a creative catering service that uses food as a medium to make art.
 Active networking took the budding food connoisseur far on his entrepreneurship journey but the odyssey was riddled with challenges. Mortezaei is one of a growing number of immigrant-background people changing the landscape of  entrepreneurship in Finland.
 Immigrants create low-wage, low-productivity jobs
 Mortezaei’s story is likely by no means unique. As of 2016, the total number of companies started by immigrants was 3,941, of which 3,103 provided services such as construction, wholesale and retail trade, accommodation and food service activities —almost half of these businesses are located in the Helsinki metropolitan area, according to data from a study by the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) in collaboration with Statistics Finland that examined the growth of immigrant-owned firms in Finland from 2007–2016.
 "We found that immigrant-owned enterprises account for a few percent of all firms and about one percent of all labour in the business sector. Their job creation rates are exceptionally high and the growth of the real value added is markedly higher than other groups like local, domestic and global firms."
 "However, we also found that immigrant-owned firms have created a lot of low-productivity and low-wage jobs," Statistics Finland’s Head of Research  Satu Nurmi  said.
 "Networking in Finland is a bit like blind dating"
 Mortezaei was a mining engineering in Iran before he moved to Finland to study visual communications, but his culinary journey began when he started dumpster diving with friends to make dinners for a sustainability initiative. The momentum he received bagged him a job in a kitchen in Helsinki, but when he decided to venture into the wild world of entrepreneurship he didn’t know where to begin.
 Story continues after photo.

 Entrepreneur Vahid Mortezaei uses food as a tool to tell stories. Alexander Popkov
 "One time, if not for my Finnish partner who helped me with translations and paperwork, I wouldn’t even have realised that I had to pay 5,000 euros to the tax office. I remember being in a state of panic all the time," added Mortezaei who said most business advisory services were in Finnish when he started.
 The entrepreneur said that one of the cultural challenges he faced in Finland is that no one tells you anything if you don’t ask. " After a harrowing amount of paperwork, I received a start-up grant, only to learn that the amount was half of what I could get if I just took an unemployment benefit. No one tells you the exact picture until you ask specific questions,” elaborated Mortezaei who said he realised he needs to start networking agressively to make it.
 "Left with not much choice, I wooed top management of companies that I wanted to work with by constantly emailing, calling them and asking them out for coffee. It was a bit like blind dating! But it worked. People began to recognise who I am," he added.
 Build a plan before a business
 Startup Refugees is an organisation that guides immigrants like Mortezaei — refugees or otherwise — to find their professional footing in Finland. "Honestly, the most common question we are asked is — ‘can you help us find a store for our business? That is the least of their worries if you ask me. We urge them to focus more on background research. Most of them are not aware of who their potential customers are,"  Kati Lappeteläinen , Business Program Manager at Startup Refugees, said.
 Story continues after photo.

 Kati Lappeteläinen from Startup Refugees advises immigrant entrepreneurs on basics including making a business plan and market research. Sami Mannerheimo
 Being a single-person business is hard — “Everyone wants scalability”
 In Finland, micro enterprises or companies employing fewer than 20 employees —17 percent of all businesses — generated turnover of 70 billion euros in 2017, according to data from the Federation of Finnish Enterprises (Suomen Yrittäjät). The outgoing government has attempted to lower the threshold for small firms to hire new employees to boost employment and scale up their businesses, by making it  easier for them to fire staff . However the measure came in for  heavy criticism from union leaders  and it remains to be seen how far it has incentivised entrepreneurs like Mortezaei.
 The food designer said he was forced to run the show himself as he felt it was practically impossible to hire employees .
 "When my income was measly, I had to take care of everything. I had to cook, network with people, market my work online and keep my business afloat. I have been trying to find someone to partner with, but I have been unsuccessful so far. I use food as a medium to tell stories and create experiences. It was so hard to explain this to anyone. I didn’t want to be dismissed as just another artist, as I am also a businessman who needs to pay my bills," Mortezaei said.
 Story continues after photo.

 Vahid Mortezaei makes art with food. Katja Hagelstam
 Mortezaei’s clients run the gamut from universities and museums to creative agencies. He says he is happy being a one-man show collaborating with the industry’s best. "Instead of hiring people and having to worry about the overheads, I work as a B2B business which comes together with other vendors for a project and then moving on after that. This way, I don’t have to worry about paying someone’s pension, wages, etc," Mortezaei added.
 Lappeteläinen agreed that the cost of hiring employees can come as a huge surprise to many immigrants who want to start businesses. "Depending on the size and sector of business, an employer has to bear the added costs of around 40-70% on top of existing wages. So if you are paying an employee 1,000 euros, the actual cost can be anywhere between 1,400-1,700 euros if you include fees for pension, social security, sick leave, maternity leave, etc.," Lappeteläinen added.
 “You will always be an outsider”
 Mortezaei said he learnt the hard way that being a foreigner and not knowing the language also keeps him out of the circles that exist in the business world. "Finland is a very closed market. I don't want to call it a mafia, but the truth is that there are circles of every kind of job you can imagine — bubbles of designers, clubs of restaurateurs — as long as you are not a member,  you are a total outsider. "
 "Of course, not speaking Finnish is a huge problem too. I feel the first step towards entrepreneurship should be a language camp maybe. Yes Finns speak English, but when it comes to business, many key decisions are taken in moments when they speak Finnish— like in the sauna," he continued.
 Mortezaei was quick to add that the picture is not all that depressing either. "Even if there is bureaucracy here, it is a functioning one. We enjoy good infrastructure, endless free services and more. I would only recommend budding entrepreneurs to build a team right from the beginning and not be too attached to their ideas. I learnt the hard way that if something doesn’t work, one needs to accept it and move on," Mortezaei said.

From dumpster diving to haute cuisine: A story of immigrant entrepreneurship in Finland


Summary: The northwest coastal city of Oulu was one of several that had over 30-degree Celsius temperatures on Friday.

Hot summer temperatures were measured in Finland this week, with a record seasonal high of 32.2 degrees Celsius measured in the northwest coastal city of Oulu on Friday, 7 June.
 Another northwest coastal city was close behind, as 31.1 degrees Celsius was recorded in Kokkola.
 Temperatures that surpassed 30C were also measured in the west coast cities of Vaasa and Pori, as well as the southern inland city of Tampere on Friday.
 Yle meteorologist  Matti Huutonen  tweeted an image of Finland awash with the orange colours that indicate hot temperatures on Friday afternoon.
 The forecast for Saturday and Sunday predicts that the high temperatures will continue through the weekend, with an addition of thunderstorms throughout the country.
 The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) says storms will develop in the western and central parts of the country in the afternoon and evening. Heavy rains will fall, up to 20 mm per hour in some places, leading to possible flooding. The thunderstorms could bring severe weather to Lapland.
 "The thunderclouds will start to gather at around noon; they could arrive quickly, too," says  Ari Mustala , a FMI meteorologist.
 The hottest temperatures in the country on Saturday will be in eastern areas, where the 30-degree mark is expected to be broken once again. Things are coolest in Lapland, but even there, the mercury will shoot up past 20 degrees.
 Thunderstorms will continue in most areas on Sunday, with temperatures in the low twenties predicted for southern and western areas.

Finland basks in early summer heat, thunderstorms on the way


Summary: Helsinki University Hospital HUS may have spent tens of millions of euros on goods and services that hadn't been properly tendered first.

Helsingin ja Uudenmaan sairaanhoitopiiri

Helsingin seudun yliopistollinen keskussairaala

Terveydenhuollon, opetuksen, kulttuurin ja muiden yhteiskuntapalvelujen hallinto

A report from November 2018 on an internal audit conducted by the Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) – a network of 22 hospitals in the capital city area – reveals that up to tens of millions of euros in public procurement may not have been publicly announced and made subject to competitive bidding, as Finnish and EU laws require.
 The audit covered the months of January to August last year.
 The report suggests that internal monitoring of two billion euros in procurement in the organisation was lacking in 2018, while a November summary from HUS leadership states that the audit implies blatant negligence of the legal provisions associated with public procurement. According to the audit, the network's logistics operations, administration and various units all knew of the problem.
 A working paper from an internal audit in September shows that HUS directly purchased 1.7 million euros in DNA analyses from a private company in 2017 and 2018 without first putting the work up for tender. The audit also found that no kind of contract was ever drawn up for this work.
 FCAA investigating the claim
 The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority's public procurement supervision unit has started an investigation into the case, and will not comment further.
 An EU directive on public procurement was enacted in 2014, as the absence of proper regulation was seen to generate economic inefficiency and had a negative impact on getting the best value for public money.
 Finnish law requires competitive bidding be arranged for all social and health care service purchases worth over 400,000 euros.
 HUS board chair  Ulla-Marja Urho  says that if the audit's observations are true, then the oversight must be a mistake. She says she has not seen the auditors' report, as they report to the HUS CEO.  Aki Lindén  was the HUS CEO when the audit was completed, but he has since moved on to be elected to the Finnish Parliament as a Social Democratic Party representative.
 The network's new CEO  Juha Tuominen  says he won't comment on the past, but will take immediate action to enforce a clearer procurement policy in order to use public money cost-efficiently.
 Finland's largest health care provider
 HUS is a local strategic partnership, with 24 member municipalities in the capital city area and beyond. The 22 hospitals in the network provide medical care to more than half a million patients annually, and it is the central hub for the treatment of many rare and severe diseases in Finland.
 It is the biggest health care provider and the second largest employer in the country, boasting over 25,000 employees.

Internal audit reveals possible faulty procurement process at HUS hospital network


Summary: President Sauli Niinistö will host several high-profile guests at Kultaranta this year.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, his wife Jenni Haukio, and their young son Aaro move from their Helsinki residence of Mäntyniemi to the official summer residence of the president in Naantali on 8 June.
 The southwest town that hosts the residence will arrange an official welcoming ceremony for the presidential family in its marina on Saturday at 6:30pm. The brief annual event is open to the public.
 The Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle will  broadcast  the ceremony live on its Yle Areena streaming service starting at 6:25pm.
 A busy summer in store
 The President will work from the Naantali residence through the summer months. His work agenda includes the seventh-annual Kultaranta Talks event in mid-June. The topic of this year's security summit will be “The world at a turning point – where will Europe go, how will Finland cope?”
 On 16 June, Niinistö will be joined by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier to give the event's opening remarks, and the public discussions of this year's theme will continue into the next day.
 Finland will also take over the rotating six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1. The country holding the presidency is responsible for advancing the Council's work on EU legislation and policy initiatives and ensuring the continuity of the EU agenda. It also represents the Council in relations with the other EU institutions, such as the Commission and the European Parliament.

Presidential family transfers to summer residence in Naantali


Summary: The child was swimming at Lake Lavijärvi with his family.

A boy born in 2012 drowned on Friday afternoon swimming in a lake near the city of Pori on Finland's west coast. The boy was accompanied by his family, and the Southwest Finland Police Department says there were several other swimmers present during the incident.
 The police say they have no further information at this time.
 Lake Lavijärvi is located in what used to be the municipality of Lavia, which merged with the city of Pori in 2015. It is about an hour's drive east of the city.

7-year-old boy drowns in Pori


Summary: More trees may be felled by storms as electrical storms move toward the Russian border. Cooler weather is on the way.

After several warm days, temperatures will cool on Sunday and into next week, says the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). Meanwhile thunderstorms continue over eastern and northern Finland.
 Repair crews are working on Sunday to fix power outages following bands of thunderstorms on Saturday evening and overnight. According the industry group  Finnish Energy (ET) , the number of households without electricity on Sunday has see-sawed between 1,000 and 6,000, mostly in Pirkanmaa as well as central and eastern Finland. On Saturday evening nearly 20,000 customers were without electricity.
 Lightning bolts struck Finland about 16,000 times on Saturday. Yle meteorologist  Matti Huutonen  says that is a large number for this time of year, equivalent to nearly half of the monthly average for June.
 "Trees may be knocked down"
 On Sunday thundershowers are expected in eastern and northern parts of the country. They are bringing heavy rain and lightning, which may cause damage in Northern Karelia, Kainuu, Northern Savo and Northern Ostrobothnia.
 "Trees may be knocked down by wind gusts," says FMI meteorologist  Hannu Valta .
 Western Finland will be mostly dry and sunny in the afternoon. Central and northern Lapland will shiver with a chilly northeasterly wind and temperatures around 5 degrees Celsius.
 Eastern areas meanwhile may heat up to around 28 degrees as the rest of the country enjoys moderate readings of around 20.
 Snow may create traffic hazard
 Early next week, colder conditions, with a chance of snow in northernmost Finland on Monday afternoon or evening. Snow may accumulate enough to hamper driving conditions on Monday night in northern Lapland, especially as most drivers are using summer tyres.
 Temperatures in southern and central Finland should be near 20 on Monday, and again on Tuesday in the south, while cooler air will move into central areas. Wednesday night may even bring severe frosts to central and northern parts of the country.

Thunderstorms knock out power to thousands; snow in next week's forecast


Summary: Henriksson says this spring's elections show that the small language-based party remains relevant.

The Swedish People's Party has unanimously re-elected  Anna-Maja Henriksson  as its chair. She got the green light for another three-year leadership term at a party conference in Vaasa on Finland's west coast. She had no challenger for the post.
 Last week Henriksson resumed her old post of justice minister, which she held in two cabinets between 2011 and 2015.
 Henriksson said that the results of the two elections this spring showed that the small language-based party remains relevant.
 "The results of this political spring speak for themselves. There is clearly a demand for our policies. Finland needs the SPP and its liberal, bourgeois policies".
 Support between 4.5 and 6.3%
 The small, middle-of-the-road Swedish People's Party has just returned to its familiar spot as a junior government partner after a rare term in the opposition.
 An Yle opinion poll released on Friday showed the party gaining a slight rise in popularity up to 4.5 percent voter approval. That is the same level of support it garnered in April's parliamentary election, allowing it retain its nine seats in the 200-seat legislature – and its status as seventh largest of the eight parties in Parliament.
 The SPP performed slightly better in May's European Parliament election, picking up 6.3 percent of voters and holding on to its one seat among a baker's dozen Finnish MEPs.
 According to Statistics Finland, 5.2 percent of the population spoke Swedish as a mother tongue in 2018, down from 6.3 percent in 1980.
 Adlercreutz leads parliamentary delegation
 As the smallest of the five parties in the new coalition government, the SPP has  two cabinet seats  out of 19. The second went to  Thomas Blomqvist  of Raseborg, western Uusimaa, who is now minister for equality and Nordic cooperation.
 Henriksson hails from Jakobstad, 100 km up the coast from Vaasa, where she has been a town councillor since 1997. The 55-year-old lawyer has been in Parliament since 2007, becoming  the SPP's first female chair  in June 2016.
 The party elected three deputy chairs on Sunday:  Sandra Bergqvist ,  Silja Borgarsdóttir Sandelin  and  Henrik Wickström . Former deputy chair  Anders Adlercreutz , an architect from Kirkkonummi, was elected as leader of the SPP parliamentary group, taking over from Blomqvist.

Justice minister re-elected as Swedish People's Party chair, hails election results


Summary: Helsinki, which expects more than half a million passengers this year, has opened a new quay for bigger cruise ships.

Helsinki is expecting a record summer as far as the number of both visiting ships and passengers. Altogether 309 international vessels are to visit 'the daughter of the Baltic', bringing more than 550,000 travellers. That's up from last year's record total of nearly 520,000 passengers.
 Eight of the cruise ships will be making their maiden call to Helsinki.
 In late April, the Port of Helsinki opened the new LHD cruise quay at Hernesaari, the southernmost tip of mainland Helsinki. As international cruise vessels are growing in size, the new dock can accommodate ships of 360 metres.
 That is much larger than the familiar passenger ferries that ply the Helsinki-Stockholm route such as the Silja Serenade (203 metres) and Viking Mariella (175 metres).
 The port's core areas in the heart of Helsinki, such as Pakkahuone Quay near the Indoor Market and Katajanokka Quay across from it, can only manage vessels of up to 215 metres, explains the port's director of passenger business operations,  Sari Nevanlinna .
 Tallinn and Stockholm routes also busier
 Nevanlinna notes that the regular routes between Helsinki and the Swedish and Estonian capitals of Stockholm and Tallinn are also much busier this summer. Families with children in particular tend to book cruises from around the Midsummer holiday (June 21-22) through early to mid-August, when schools re-open.
 Marika Nöjd , communications chief at Estonian-owned ferry operator TallinkSilja, says that Finns seem to be more interested than ever in travel to nearby areas.
 "Especially during the summer season we've set records in each of the past few years," Nöjd says.
 Besides Finnish families, local cruises on the Baltic are attracting greater numbers of Asian tourists.
 "About 13 percent of passengers come from outside our home market," she says. "Cruises are part of their northern European experience."

Giant cruise ships bringing record number of tourists to Helsinki


Summary: Finland's dailies cover a Korean state visit, ministers' environmental choices, plans to hire more physicians and more.

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

Southwest daily Turun Sanomat  reports  that South Korean President  Moon Jae-in  and his wife  Kim Jung-sook  have arrived in Finland for a state visit. Their trip, which began Sunday, will last through Tuesday.
 Finnish President  Sauli Niinistö  and his wife  Jenni Haukio  will greet their guests today at a ceremony at Helsinki's Presidential Palace. The ceremony will begin at 10 am, weather permitting, and the public will be able to follow the proceedings from Helsinki's Market Square.
 Niinistö's office says the presidents will discuss bilateral relations, regional questions and multilateral cooperation on a global level. The leaders will hold a joint press conference once the talks have finished.
 The previous presidential visit from the Republic of Korea took place in 2006. Niinistö last visited South Korea when he attended the international Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul in 2012.
 Who walks the talk?
 Oulu-based newspaper Kaleva features  answers  from some of Finland's new ministers about their lifestyle choices with respect to the government programme's new climate agenda.
 The ministers were asked where they lived, in what kind of home, and how they heated it. They were also asked what kind of transportation they used. Examples include Left Alliance chair and education minister  Li Andersson , whosays she lives in a wooden oil-heated row house in Turku and has an apartment in Helsinki with district heating that she buys from renewable energy sources. She says she primarily uses the train or walks.
 Defence minister  Antti Kaikkonen  from the Centre Party says he lives 30 kilometres north of Helsinki in Tuusula in an electrically-heated detached home and primarily uses a car for travel.  Sanna Marin , transport and communications minister from the Social Democratic Party, lives in a district heating-warmed apartment in Tampere and says she uses a car when necessary.
 Green Party chair and interior minister  Maria Ohisalo  says she lives in a duplex with district heating in Helsinki's Viikki district and mostly get around by bike or public transport. Swedish People's Party chair and justice minister  Anna-Maja Henriksson  lives in the city of Jakobstad in western Finland in a detached home with direct electric heating and an air source heat pump. She also has a small apartment where she stays in Helsinki. She says she travels from her hometown to Helsinki by plane or train.
 The state provides chauffeur-driven cars to all ministers for reasons of safety and expedience. Most of the ministers responding to the questions say they will still try to walk and use public transport whenever they can.
 Filling a public physician void
 The nation's most widely-read daily, Helsingin Sanomat, has a story on  government's plans to hire 1,000 new doctors  to work at public health care centres. The paper reports that the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) recently revised its estimate of how many more doctors are required to bring public services up to speed to between 1,100 and 1,800.
 "Municipalities have started to count on people of working age using occupational health care services and half of children being covered by private sickness insurance. The increased popularity of the active population opting for private services illustrates a deep mistrust of basic services," says  Kati Myllymäki  of the Finnish Medical Association, a professional organisation for doctors.
 Some 25 million visits to public health care centres were registered last year, 6.4 million involving the centres' doctors. Only eight percent of people in lowest income bracket have bought private insurance, compared with 30 percent of people in the highest income level.
 THL research director  Maria Vaalavuo  tells the paper that many high earners don't know what it is like to wait in line at a public health care centre "because they have never done it". She says that the lines are mostly filled with the unemployed, seniors and children without private coverage – groups that have "little political clout" that would urge municipalities to remedy the deteriorating situation.
 Warmer than usual, perhaps?
 And the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat has made a prediction concerning the  weather for the Midsummer weekend of 21-23 June , when most Finns head to their summer cottages from some rest and relaxation.
 Although "it's hard to make forecasts in advance", IS says the current prediction is looking good for the cherished holiday.
 "Based on the monthly forecast you could say that southern Finland might see warmer temperatures than normal, so there's hope," Foreca meteorologist  Kristian Roine  tells the paper.
 Temperatures of around 24 degrees Celsius are being predicted for the Helsinki area's Midsummer weekend at present, while central and northern areas have forecasts of "normal weather" for the season, with temperatures around 20 degrees.

Monday's papers: Korean visit, ministers' climate footprints, doctor shortage and Midsummer forecast


Summary: Many bird species are suffering due to human encroachment into their habitats, while others are adapting to urban life.

An oystercatcher hunts for worms and other food with its long orange beak on the football pitch at Tammela Stadium in Finland's largest inland city, Tampere.
 These waders usually live along the coast, but they have also settled in along the shores of Näsijärvi, a large lake just north of the hub. In the past few years they have begun nesting right in the city centre.
 "These birds find places to nest on the roofs of apartment blocks, where foxes can't climb," explains  Jukka T. Helin , president of the Pirkanmaa Ornithological Society.
 Story continues after photo
 Helin has observed changes in Pirkanmaa's bird life over many years. Marko Melto / Yle
 Helin says that there are signs of oystercatchers moving into urban centres elsewhere in Finland.
 Olympic Stadium owl
 Jackdaws, highly adaptable members of the crow family found all over Europe and parts of Asia and Africa, are continuously spreading into new areas. They find endless opportunities for places to nest in human structures, as well as a wide variety of food sources, including other birds' eggs.
 Some birds of prey or raptors are finding food and even places to nest in urban environments as natural areas shrink. So while city birds are safe from human hunters, but may be at risk from other birds.
 Owls, for instance, nest in urban areas where there are old trees. Helin says he hopes that city officials and private landowners think twice before cutting down trees that offer good nesting places.
 Story continues after photo
 The owl, dubbed Bubi, at the Olympic Stadium. YLE
 Helsinki is home to a number of owls. In 2007, a men's European Football Championship qualification match was paused when an eagle-owl landed in the Olympic Stadium. The national men's team has since been nicknamed the Huuhkajat (Eagle-owls).
 Hunting-free zones
 Wood pigeons, which are larger than regular city pigeons, were once solely forest-dwellers as their name suggests. Now they too are moving into suburban and urban areas.
 They produce many young, known as squabs, which have a better chance of surviving to adulthood in cities, where there are fewer predators.
 Story continues after photo
 Wood pigeons have become familiar sights in towns. Marko Melto / Yle
 "The wood pigeon's success in the cities may also partly be an adaption to the early start of the hunting season," Helin suggests. They are among the first species that can be legally hunted as the autumn season gets underway, usually beginning on 10 August.
 Wood pigeons, which have several broods during the summer, usually still have squabs at this point. Breeding females in cities are safe from human hunters, though.
 Park life
 A pair of red-necked grebes are nesting on a pond in a park in the Viinikka district, near one of Tampere's busiest thoroughfares. They too are typically coastal birds, known for their courtship displays and loud mating calls.
 Story continues after photo
 A red-necked grebe and its nest on Pahalampi pond in Tampere. Marko Melto / Yle
 Helin says that so far this seems to be a one-off case rather than a broader move toward city life for the species.
 "They've gotten very used to people and nested here for many years, but I would hope that they are not unnecessarily bothered. In particular, dogs shouldn't be allowed to harass the birds," he says.
 Helin believes it is only a matter of time before goshawks begin nesting in Tampere as they have in other cities, at which point smaller urban birds will face a new challenge.

Birds seek safety from predators in cities, raptors also urbanising


Summary: A recalculation of carbon sink capacity now recommends cutting logging by at least another million cubic metres.

Finland's Natural Resources Institute (Luke) has revised its benchmark assessment of target carbon sink levels, after discovering an error in its calculations.
 According to the new count, Finland will need to raise its carbon sink sequestration numbers by another 10 percent beyond the numbers in its original estimate.
 The correction means that  logging volumes of Finnish forests  will have to be reduced by another 1-2 million cubic metres.
 The state-owned research institute's new recommendation puts the ceiling at 81-82 million cubic metres for the 2012-2025 period, down from the figure of 83 million proposed in December.
 Luke says the calculation error accounts for the equivalence of 3 million tonnes of CO2, both with and without wood products.
 "This means that we have to enact changes in the land use sector that would reduce greenhouse gases and add more carbon sink capacity quickly," says  Aleksi Lehtonen , an associate professor at Luke, which operates under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
 Finland committed to EU emissions reduction target
 In October 2018 the UN climate council published  a special report on the impact of global warming of 1.5 °C . The European Union had earlier set an emission reduction target of 20 percent in relation to the year 1990. The EU has also committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.
 Finland drew up a Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) plan, and in the summer of 2018 an agreement was reached on the specific targets, based on Luke's original calculations of the reference level for Finnish forests' carbon sequestration.
 On 6 June 2019, after experts pointed out a problem, Luke announced that it had decided to revise its calculation methods for determining the reference level for carbon sink capacity by accounting differently for forest areas that it deems ready for final felling.
 Controversial expansion of pulp market
 EU directives require that logging activities relative to the tree population remain unchanged, with consideration for the different development phases in forests, whereas Finland's plans appear to raise logging intensity significantly.
 Several new pulp mills are being planned that would increase the commercial use of forest products significantly. Debate over state approval of a pulp mill extension in Kemi animated recent government formation talks. Last week new Environment Minister  Krista Mikkonen  from the Greens Party said it  wasn't likely  that all of the  pulp mill investment projects  in the pipeline will end up being implemented, angering many representatives of the Centre Party.
 Along with Poland, Finland has received the most warnings from the EU about the accuracy and transparency of its carbon sink benchmark calculations.
 "It's difficult to estimate, as it depends on what kinds of emissions reductions Finland will be able to carry out. Will the  Kemi pulp mill  be the only one that increases wood intake? We need to know more about the other factors," Lehtonen says.
 The EU Commission has asked Finland to specify future logging amounts and assess whether its current calculations for wood use are appropriate in light of alarming rises in greenhouse gas emissions.
 Luke says it will submit its new figures to the EU and expects the Commission to request corrections again in June or July. At the end of the year, the EU will then set a final carbon sink benchmark for the country.

Finland must further reduce logging to preserve carbon sink, says agency


Summary: Loxam's offer nearly doubled the Finnish firm's listed value.

Rakennuskoneiden ja -laitteiden vuokraus

French equipment rental service Loxam has offered 970 million euros to acquire Finnish-owned Ramirent, which also provides machinery and tools for hire. The bid cited a price of nine euros per share, nearly double the 5.44-euro value Ramirent has on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.
 "The price offered by Loxam presents an attractive cash premium to our shareholders. With a history of making acquisitions and integrating companies, I believe Loxam offers a good home for Ramirent,"  Ulf Lundahl , Ramirent's board chair, said in a press release.
 Loxam is Europe's largest equipment rental company, with over 700 branches in 13 countries. The company posted revenue of 1.48 billion euros in 2108, and has more than 8,000 employees.
 Ramirent Group's turnover last year was more than 700 million euros. The Finnish company was founded in 1955, employs around 2,900 people and operates in nine countries.
 "The combination of Ramirent and Loxam represents a unique opportunity to build a truly pan-European leader in the equipment rental market. Loxam has known, followed and highly regarded Ramirent for a number of years, and appreciates its experienced management team and employees, as well as its strong positions in all the markets where it operates," said  Gérard Déprez , president and CEO of Loxam.

French firm makes €970m bid for Finnish equipment rental outfit Ramirent


Summary: President Moon Jae-in visits startup firms at Aalto University in between talks with Finnish leaders this week.

South Korea's President  Moon Jae-in  formally began a state visit to Finland on Monday morning, a day after arriving in Helsinki. He was welcomed by his Finnish counterpart  Sauli Niinistö  at the Presidential Palace in central Helsinki. Both men were accompanied by their spouses.
 After holding talks, the two heads of state held a joint press conference. Besides bilateral issues, the two said they had discussed North Korea. Moon expressed optimism about Pyongyang's dialogue with the United States, and Niinistö offered to help further as needed.  Some low-profile talks  between the two sides have been held in Finland, but no more are planned.
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 The presidents discussed an array of bilateral and international issues. Karoliina Simoinen / Yle
 The presidents also agreed to open direct flights between Helsinki and Busan, a city of 3.5 million that has so far not had a direct air link with Europe.
 Startup culture and corporate forum
 Moon's schedule for Monday also included a meeting with Speaker of Parliament and former prime minister  Matti Vanhanen  and a visit to Aalto University in Espoo to find out about Finnish startup culture, which South Korea reportedly wants to emulate. The scheduled activities of the day end with a state banquet at the palace.
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 President Moon Jae-in and his wife were welcomed at Helsinki Airport on Sunday by the new Minister of Economic Affairs, Katri Kulmuni. Yonhap / EPA
 On Tuesday, Moon is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister  Antti Rinne  and address a corporate forum along with Niinistö.
 Police have issued warnings for traffic disruptions in central and western Helsinki as some streets are closed off for official motorcades.
 Niinistö visited Seoul in 2012 to take part in an international Nuclear Security Summit.
 The last visit to Finland by a Korean president was in 2006, when  Tarja Halonen  hosted  Roh Moo-hyun .
 Moon, who took office two years ago, leaves Finland on Wednesday, continuing on to Sweden and Norway.

South Korean and Finnish presidents discuss Pyongyang, business


Summary: Finnish police caught more than 19,000 intoxicated drivers last year - most commonly during the summer months.

As Finland's summer holiday season gets started the number of  intoxicated drivers on the road often rises , and this year doesn't appear to be an exception.
 Police across the country carried out a heightened patrol for impaired drivers last weekend. The effort caught 136 drunk drivers and 32 others who were operating vehicles under the influence of drugs, police reported on Monday.
 Additionally, last weekend's roadside breathalyser tests revealed that 821 drivers had alcohol in their systems, but below legally-permitted blood alcohol concentration levels (BAC) of 0.5  promille  (mg per ml of blood).
 Police said they caught significantly fewer intoxicated drivers last month during a similar heightened weekend-long patrol, with 65 drivers over the legal alcohol limit and 19 drivers who were under the influence of drugs.
 Police inspector  Heikki Ihalainen  said an increase in impaired drivers on the roads is common during the summer.
 He said that police will closely patrol areas and roadways around summer cottages in the runup to the Midsummer holiday, when many residents head out to the countryside for summertime celebrations.
 Police carried out last weekend's heightened patrol from Thursday until Sunday.

Nearly 170 drunk or drugged drivers nabbed in Finland over weekend


Summary: The veteran officer warned that if his unit's work is not done, the city's human trafficking and pimping trade will flourish.

Helsinki police detective sergeant  Kenneth Eriksson  is preparing to retire this summer. When he does, the department plans to shut down the preventative investigation unit he has led for the past 20 years. The unit handles cases related to organised crime, sex-related human trafficking and pimping.
 The Helsinki police department has said such investigations will continue after the unit is closed, but going forward, individual probes will be carried out based on the arrival of criminal complaints.
 "My unit uncovers crime. No one willingly goes to the police to report human trafficking or gang-related extortion. We talk with people and try to get them to understand why they should not accept what they are being subjected to. This job is done on the street and takes time," Eriksson said.
 Eriksson, 58, has led the unit for the past two decades, during which time the investigative team has ranged in size from four to 10 police officers.
 "We live in a society where there are rules that everyone needs to follow. Then we have a number of people who play by their own rules. If we don't intervene, that means society accepts that there's a shadow society with its own rules. That kind of criminality needs to be uncovered. It's a question of serious crimes," Eriksson said.
 According to recent a report published by a group from the Council of Europe, the number of  victims of human trafficking has tripled in Finland  over the course of just three years.
 Eriksson's grim outlook
 "If nothing is done it'll be a disaster within a year. The human trafficking and pimping business will flourish. Pimps called me when they heard I was retiring. They have ended the conversations saying 'next year freedom.' That tells you exactly what this is about. If we don't intervene it will be a mess," Eriksson warned.
 Story continues after photo.
 File photo of prostitute talking to prospective customer in car. Yle
 Detective chief inspector  Jonna Turunen , who heads up the Helsinki police department's criminal investigation unit, confirmed that after the unit is shut down, probes will be chiefly carried out into crimes and cases that have been reported.
 "We will continue to be responsible for investigating organised crime, human trafficking and pimping. For the most part we will ensure that crimes that have been reported to us are investigated. After that we will see what resources we have to invest in uncovering [criminal] operations," Turunen said.
 "We still have units that are engaged in uncovering criminal activities, but they are responsible for many different types of crimes, including all organised crime. Unfortunately, [this type of] uncovering activity is what the police had to sacrifice when faced with scarce resources," she said.
 When asked for her take on Eriksson's opinion that human trafficking will flourish in Helsinki after the unit is shut down, Turunen said: "He has a lot of experience and is a professional in his field. Kenneth Eriksson knows what he's talking about."
 However, Turunen said that the closure of the unit was not an indication that the department was giving up.
 No surrender
 "Our responsibility continues and we will use the resources available to us. But human trafficking is just a part of the criminality that such units investigate. We're not surrendering," Turunen said.
 Eriksson said he wanted to emphasise that Turunen herself is not to blame for the situation, and that the problem was a lack of resources.
 "The police department needs to serve everyone and since there's a staff shortage, this is the decision that was reached," Eriksson said.
 Whether Finland's newly-minted government plans to improve the situation remains to be seen. According to the proposed government programme, a police unit will be established to reveal and investigate human trafficking crimes, but exactly where the unit will operate - as well as its level of funding - remains unclear.
 "This job is based on knowing people. Victims, regular people and prostitutes contact me. Since I know what's going on in the field, I know when we should intervene. Gangs come to me and I have no problem visiting their clubs to talk to them," Eriksson said, adding that it is time for him to move on.
 Leaving the pack
 "At some point you need to make room for the younger generations. The wolf pack is led by an Alpha male but the day he doesn't have the spark, it's time to hand over that job to someone younger," he said, adding that he doesn't really see himself as an Alpha wolf.
 "No, but I am a unit leader. That means you should have a certain hunger. Earlier I was a good hunter but now I feel more like a scavenger. You [increasingly] settle for lesser results," he said.
 Eriksson will end his police department career later this summer but will officially retire at the end of the year. However, he doesn't have plans to stop working entirely.
 "I'm considering starting my own security company to work as a consultant," he explained.
 He ran unsuccessfully in last spring's general elections as a Swedish People's Party candidate, garnering less than 250 votes, and said he is unsure of his future in politics.
 "I was asked to run [last spring] and also ran as a candidate in a municipal election in the '90s," he explained.
 "Even though it didn't go very well it was a pleasant and interesting experience. I got to know new people. It was an experience - and you learn a lot from every experience," he said.

Helsinki police to shutter organised crime unit after detective's retirement


Summary: A bold plan to overhaul prisons,  a baby bonus deemed illegal, worries over sick suburbs and a 50,000-euro MP's seat.

The Oulu-based paper  Kaleva reports on a proposal  by the Criminal Sanctions Agency, Rise, to reform the country's prison system, partly by centralising prisons in large cities and new growth centres. The proposed locations for correctional facilities would be the Helsinki region as well as Turku, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Oulu, Vaasa and Hämeenlinna.
 The paper's reporting is based on a memo acquired by the Lännen Media news consortium, which contains an analysis of the current prison network. The agency handed the document over to the Justice Ministry in April, Kaleva noted.
 "We are hoping for a decision in next year's budget schedule, or by the end of this year," said Rise development manager  Pauli Nieminen .
 According to the analysis, there are roughly 7,000 convicts in the prison system, with 3,000 of them in custody at any given time. The proposed reforms would reduce the annual number of occupants by 1,000 a year in 20 years. At the same time the number of open prisons and the use of ankle monitors would increase to cover half of the system's inmates, compared to one-third today.
 Rise's overhaul of the prison system also calls for complete renovations to existing prisons. In the future, two-thirds of convicts would do time in new facilities. Rise expects that the rationalisation of the prison network would reduce annual spending by up to seven percent or 32 million euros in 20 years. Kaleva wrote that the vision also involves preventing recidivism or repeat offences by devoting an additional 260 person-years in resources to working with inmates, thereby further decreasing the annual prison population by 1,000 in 20 years.
 Baby bonus goes bust
 The tiny town of Sulkava in southeastern Finland found itself on the wrong side of the local administrative court when it tried to boost its population by introducing a kind of baby bonus, reports  the tabloid daily Ilta-Sanomat .
 The paper writes that with a population of just 2,500 give or take, city officials agreed to introduce  a baby bonus in the form of a tax rebate . However the measure proved to be illegal because it set families on an unequal footing. City leaders agreed to the measure last February, however one councillor opposed it and filed a complaint with the local administrative court.
 The Eastern Finland Administrative Court sided with the complainant and revoked the benefit, which would have refunded taxes paid by families with babies born last year or this year as a fixed "stipend". It also blocked the city council from paying out any gratuities.
 The court estimated that a resident earning 1,500 euros a month would have paid 900 euros in local taxes last year, while another with a monthly salary of 5,000 euros would have contributed 11,600 euros in taxes. Both would have received the same stipend. IS concluded that residents in Sulkava apparently "got busy between the sheets" but got no baby bonus.
 Worries over apartment block suburbs
 Finland's 600-odd apartment block suburbs are in social and economic decline and pose a challenge to the incoming government,  according to research highlighted  by capital-based daily Helsingin Sanomat.
 The paper unravels the work of Helsinki University researcher  Mats Stjernberg , whose urban geography dissertation argued that concentrations of multi-story flats feature higher levels of unemployment and lower incomes than other areas. Stjernberg also found that on average, residents of such communities also fell ill more often and died younger than people living in other areas.
 Apartment blocks constructed in the 1960s and 70s account for one-third of all residential buildings in the country. However they are now coming to the end of their useful lives, Stjernberg said. That means a cycle of costly renovations to homes that are less likely to sell on the real estate market. While it makes sense to spend on home improvements in Helsinki, homes are likely to be demolished  in other locations experiencing population loss , the dissertation argued.
 HS writes that the new administration led by  Antti Rinne  is worried about the situation. It aims to build new transportation connections and affordable housing as well as strengthen local democracy. It has developed a cross-governmental programme to promote wellbeing and inclusiveness and to revitalise residential areas.
 The price of a ticket to Parliament
 With the deadline approaching for MPs to declare their political campaign spending,  IS runs an analysis of incoming lawmakers' campaign budgets . Topping the list of big spenders was the National Coalition Party's  Pauli Kiuru , whose overall ticket to parliament cost nearly 77,000 euros, of which 18,096 came from donors. According to IS, Kiuru's out-of pocket spending -- around 59,000 euros -- could buy a fancy car or even pay off a loan. The paper asked Kiuru if it made sense to invest that much in a job.
 "Before the election, Ilta-Sanomat wrote a story saying that Pauli Kiuru has the cheapest car of all MPs, a 1,500-euro Mazda. I have no loans and I have a second [investment] home. Now I also have a job for four years," Kiuru countered.
 Prime Minister Antti Rinne was also a major league spender with a declared campaign budget of 62,691 euros, all of it coming from well-wishers.
 At the far end of the spectrum, NCP MP and former television personality  Jaana Pelkonen  got more bang for her campaign buck than any of her parliamentary colleagues. According to her declaration, she spent a total of just 872 euros on her campaign, more than half of which (487 euros) came from donors.
 IS noted that with the filing deadline due on 17 June, just one-third of elected MPs had filed campaign spending declarations.

Tuesday's papers: Prisons proposal, baby bonus bust, sick suburbs and a pricey ticket to Parliament


Summary: The Pentecostal NGO Fida said that international banking sanctions are making it impossible to implement aid projects.

The Pentecostal Church-run Finnish NGO Fida has said that it is pulling out of North Korea, after operating in the closed country for more than 20 years.
 Fida, which engages in missionary and development work, said on Tuesday that it will end its programmes in North Korea because sanctions imposed by the US in the past few months have made operations increasingly difficult.
 The round of sanctions target international banking, which Fida said is making it impossible for the organisation to implement projects in the pariah state.
 "We are disappointed that the tightening of sanctions has suddenly begun to prevent global humanitarian operations. Leaving North Korea was a difficult decision for us because there is a great need for aid in the country. We will have to end the long-term work that has made our operation functional," said Fida secretary general  Harri Hakola .
 Food aid for rural communities
 Fida will terminate its Finnish Foreign Ministry-funded national programme in North Korea in June. It had budgeted 414,000 euros for its work there. The development programme has improved food security and access to care and was due to continue to 2021.
 The NGO said that it had just delivered 412 tonnes of maize and soy beans in emergency aid to 134 day care facilities in Kangwon in the west of the country. It will satisfy the daily dietary needs of 12,000 people until the end of September.
 Earlier this year, Pyonyang had requested  aid from Finland to help ease a worsening food shortage .
 Fida has assisted with the development of potato farming in North Korea since 2001. It said that the crop has provided additional nutrition for rural communities and reduced malnutrition among children.
 In Finland, Fida is well known for its chain of second-hand clothing stores, which was established in 1979. It is also the country's largest development aid and missionary organisation.

Finnish church NGO quits North Korea over tougher sanctions


Summary: The deal is subject to approval by EU competition authorities.

Fazer Group announced its intention on Tuesday to sell off its food services operations -- including the chains of Amica cafeterias -- to the UK-based multinational Compass Group Plc for 475 million euros.
 Fazer said in a release that it wants to focus on consumer products and direct-to-consumer business, adding that it will use the proceeds of the sale to invest its growth strategy.
 As part of the deal the Finnish baked goods and confectionery company said it will license the Fazer Food & Co brand to Compass Group for three years to ensure a smooth transition.
 The company said that the conclusion of the deal is subject to approval by EU Commission competition authorities. It added that the transaction would include all of the food services' division workers, approximately 7,000.
 Fazer Food Services currently has operations in Sweden, Denmark and Norway as well as a production kitchen in Estonia and had revenues of 600 million euros last year.
 Compass is the largest contract food supplier in the world, has operations in 45 countries, employs 600,000 and reported turnover of around 26 billion euros in 2018.

Finland's Fazer to sell food services to UK multinational for €475M


Summary: Government says the unpopular model will be rolled back once certain "employment-related measures" have been introduced.

Newly-minted Social Affairs and Health Minister  Aino-Kaisa Pekonen  has issued assurances that the new government is already taking steps to roll back  the highly unpopular activation model  introduced by the previous administration to get unemployed people into jobs. The plan was part of the previous government's ambition to reform the labour market and boost the employment rate to 72 percent,  a target it achieved at the end of last year .
 The scheme required the unemployed to either enrol in a training programme, bill a minimum of 241 euros or perform 18 hours of paid work in each three-month period. Failure to do so resulted in the authorities docking their unemployment benefit by 4.65 percent a month, amounting to a 32.40-euro cut in the 696-euro benefit from the Social Insurance Institution (Kela).
 During the first review period after the model was introduced by  Juha Sipilä 's administration at the beginning of 2018, roughly  94,000 people suffered benefits cuts  for failing to meet the criteria.
 On Monday, Pekonen took to Twitter to signal that work was underway to strike down the scheme.
 "The activation model is being dismantled. Many have asked and I want to answer clearly. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is already preparing to terminate the model and the change will be implemented as quickly as possible, while paying attention to good legislative practice and the need for changes in Kela's systems," the minister tweeted.
 Questions over administration's plans
 Kela, Finland's principal benefits agency, was responsible for rolling out two of the previous government's flagship labour market reforms,  the activation model  and  a widely-publicised basic income experiment .
 The new administration's plans to bin the activation model have raised some questions. According to the government programme, the model will be discontinued when the cabinet has concluded certain "employment-related measures".
 Before the election, current government partners, the Left Alliance and Prime Minister  Antti Rinne 's Social Democratic Party  had promised to eliminate the model , which was widely seen as unjust.
 A citizens' initiative to dismantle the scheme gathered broad support and  was handed to lawmakers  soon after the model was introduced.

Minister: Govt to dismantle contentious activation model "as quickly as possible"