Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee has completed its report on Finland's Nato membership.
At a press conference on Friday, committee chair Jussi Halla-aho (Finns) said that the entire Parliament will consider the report next week. According to the preliminary schedule, MPs are to vote on it on 28 February, which would ensure that the decision is locked in before the end of the legislative term, pending a final sign-off from President Sauli Niinistö.
According to Halla-aho, the goal is still that Finland and Sweden can join Nato together and as quickly as possible.
The deputy chair of the committee, former foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja (SDP), said that Sweden is also making progress on its agreements with Nato.
Halla-aho emphasised the Parliament's need for access to information and the smooth cooperation between the government and the president on the issue.
Annual Nato costs €70–100m
The committee declared that joining Nato is Finland's most significant foreign and security policy decision since EU membership in 1995, and will have far-reaching effects on Finland's international position. In the committee's view, joining the western alliance will prevent threats to Finland.
The report estimates that Nato membership will cost Finland 70–100 million euros annually. However it notes that the fiscal impact will be evaluated more precisely as part of future budget proposals.
The government presented the bill on Nato membership to Parliament on 5 December, and MPs first discussed it on 13 December.
Simple majority required
The Constitutional Law Committee ruled in January that the Parliament could decide on the matter with a simple majority.
“This requires the consent of the Parliament, and can be carried out with a simple majority. We considered that it is not such a significant transfer of authority to Nato that a two-thirds majority is needed,” constitutional committee chair Johanna Ojala-Niemelä (SDP) said at the time.
There was then a discussion between various parties in the legislature about whether the Nato agreement should be approved during this legislative term or passed to the new Parliament that to be elected in April.
The parties eventually agreed to carry out the approval before the election even though Turkey and Hungary have not yet ratified Finland's Nato membership. The accession of Finland and Sweden to Nato requires the approval of all 30 member states.
The other three Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland and Norway) were among the original signatories of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4, 1949.
The Parliament approved Finland's Nato membership application in May 2022 by a vote of 188–8, and the Nato Summit in Madrid in June 2022 gave the green light for Finland and Sweden to start Nato accession discussions.
