ISSUE 20 • 28 SEPTEMBER – 4 OCTOBER 2007 • €3 • WWW.HELSINKITIMES.FI FINLAND NEWS BUSINESS SPORT HOUSING CULTURE Political Cold spells Kallio Increasing National campaigns good for victorious rents worry Opera boring sales in Japan Finns autumn season page 5 page 10 page 12 page 13 page 18 LEHTIKUVA / MARKKU ULANDER Vanhanen: Current military capacity is too costly HELSINKI TIMES similar to today’s situation, politi- cal discussions were not the only fac- tors infl uencing policy. Finland simply PRIME MINISTER Matti Vanhanen didn’t have enough money to defend has stated that Finland may not itself from all perceived threats. have enough resources to maintain "The most diffi cult situation its current military capabilities. arises as the cost of weapons tech- Speaking to a group of journalists at nology increases by 8% a year. But at YLE, he said that cash shortages will the same time, we need more tech- force Finland to reassess military nologically-advanced equipment in threats, and determine the defence the army," Vanhanen said. capabilities of a smaller army. Vanhanen agrees with comments Vanhanen said that the discus- made by Commander of the Finnish sions in other European countries fo- Defence Forces Juhani Kaskeala. cus far less on war terminology than Kaskeala said the current troop lev- in Finland.“This type of serious dis- el of 350,000 soldiers needs to be cussion, that a war in Europe could reduced by at least 100,000. Even happen, simply does not occur. In Fin- with the cuts, Vanhanen said Fin- land many discussions involve com- land would still have a large army bat rhetoric. This is something I don't by European standards. understand,” he told YLE. A government report on foreign The idea that Finland is facing mili- and security policy is expected to be Finland needs to cut the number of soldiers to purchase more of technologically advanced equipment, according to tary threats is subsiding. In the 1990s, ready in about a year. prime minister Matti Vanhanen. New class action law improves consumer rights Finland needs to open HANNA KOIVISTO - STT ative. The costs incurred in bring- JAMES O’CONNOR - HT ing the case are also paid through recruitment offices abroad the ombudsman. These limits are in CONSUMERS in Finland will be in a place so as to minimise the possibili- MIRVA LEMPIÄINEN He warns that time is running out “The pay level is our strength, as better position to claim compensa- ty of claims being brought before the HELSINKI TIMES as there are increasing numbers of wages here are much better than in tion for small damages, thanks to a court on dubious or trivial grounds. EU countries competing over for- many immigrants’ home countries,” new law that comes into force in Oc- Group claims have been a conten- FINLAND needs to open up re- eign labour. Fagernäs explains, adding that good tober. The new group claims law will tious issue in Finland since the early cruitment offi ces abroad as soon “We are not a tempting country social security and a safe living en- give consumers more legal protec- 1990s. Representatives of industry as possible to alleviate the grow- to come to, unless we make our- vironment are other pull-factors. tion in cases where the damages in- and commerce have opposed the ing labour shortage problem, ad- selves that way,” Fagernäs says. In Wärn points out that the offi c- volved are relatively small. new law on various grounds, includ- vices the Confederation of Finnish his opinion, the new agencies could es wouldn’t actually be recruitment “The problem at the moment is that ing that it would damage the Finnish Industries (EK). Leif Fagernäs, the be set up in Russia, Ukraine, Po- agencies as such, as no one would get often a single claim is so small that con- economy’s competitiveness. It has chief executive of the confedera- land and Turkey, for example. Riit- recruited on the spot. “They would sidering the costs of bringing a case to also been feared that the introduc- tion, is worried that Finland will tä Wärn, a labour market specialist basically be information agencies, court, legal action makes little sense,” tion of a group claims law would lead miss the employment boat unless at EK, says Finland should also look where we would tell about Finland as says Jari Suurla,a lawyer for the Offi ce to the same kind of litigious culture the country acts soon to attract into acquiring labour from In- a work destination,” she explains. In of the Consumer Agency & Ombuds- and enormous compensation pay- foreign labour. dia, Vietnam and China. The focus Wärn’s opinion Finland should learn man. In a group claim there can be outs as in the United States. According to Fägernäs, Finland should be on “young democracies from Canada, which has hundreds of thousands of claimants involved in the In Suurla’s view, however, the new will be short of about 300,000 em- with high population numbers,” recruitment offi ces located all over action, and the costs for the individu- Finnish law is unlikely to lead to such ployees in 25 years time, as some she explains. Wärn says that es- the world and a much more lenient al claimant are consequently reduced. outcomes. Under the law, the courts 20% of the current labour force will tablishing the agencies should al- immigration system. For instance, This requires that all parties to the cannot award greater damages than have retired. He calls for the Finn- ready be included in the next year’s one doesn’t need to fi nd a job before group action have the same reasons for those incurred by the consumer. Judg- ish government to fi nally act on in- budget . arriving in the country. bringing the claim, otherwise the case ing from the experience of Sweden creasing work-related immigration, The recruitment offi ces could be Both Fagernäs and Wärn call for cannot be h andled as a single case. and Norway, where similar laws have which was agreed upon already in set up at the existing consulates and changes to be made to Finland’s cur- In practice, the new law does have already been in place for some time, the previous government’s agen- embassies, Fagernäs suggests. Their rent slow immigration process. Wärn certain limitations. Group claims on- Suurla does not see any evidence to da. “We are dealing with a serious task would be to tell prospective im- thinks that the 3-6-month work per- ly cover consumer issues and can on- support the view that group claims are issue here, one that has for some migrants about job opportunities in mit waiting period needs to be re- ly be brought by an ombudsman, detrimental to a country’s economic reason been put on the backburn- Finland, and about the pay level and duced to a month. “The process is who acts as the group’s represent- competitiveness. er,” Fägernäs told Helsinki Times. language training available. very diffi cult now,” Fagernäs agrees. This restaurant offers delicious tastes from pure Best Finnish ingredients in a warm Finnish atmosphere Finnish nature. Enjoy Your meal in a warm Yrjönkatu cottage-style restaurant in the heart of Helsinki. Forum Annank u atu kat evan atu Kal ink u Eerik 1995Since kat Fredri tinkattin kinkatu Lönnro Lönnrotinkatu 13 • 00120 HELSINKI Tel. +358 9 680 3780 • www.suomirestaurant.fi 2 28 SEPTEMBER – 4 OCTOBER 2007 VIEWPOINT HELSINKI TIMES readers' letters SEND YOUR COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS TO [email protected] SOILE KALLIO I got to know about Helsinki Times when I picked up a copy of SixDegrees from the local library. I enjoyed read- ing that issue and subsequently I checked the website of Helsinki Times and it had news and information about Finland, Europe and the world from Finland’s perspec- tive - and all of that in English. At last I get some news about Finland - where I have been living for the last sev- en years - in a concise and simple commonly used “in- ternational” language. Immense thanks for your effort to reach out to the expatriates. Keep up the good work! Prasad Chatterji Thanks for a fresh publication. Finally, great to have some printed news from Finland in English. It would be good to have even more content, interviews and fea- tures. It would also be valuable to have information on MARKKU WILENIUS is a professor of futures studies at the issues such as taxation, social security, education and Turku School of Economics. He has also acted as the director of employment in Finland. Have you ever thought of hav- Finland Futures Research Centre. He is also a member of the ing a section for recruitment? executive board of the Club of Rome, a global think tank for M. Spencer long-term issues. Thank you for your suggestions. Issue 24 this autumn, published on 26 October, will be a recruitment issue. Hopefully you will fi nd some useful information in that issue! First of all I want you thank you sincerely for fi nally Finland’s image bringing to life something that should have existed long ago. As a foreign immigrant in Finland I have had diffi - culty following he events and news of Finland. Me and my husband both work in IT business and the compa- ny we are working in uses English as the working lan- is crumbling – so what? guage, so we don’t have a chance to practice it Finnish. In my opinion Helsinki Times is a high quality newspa- per comparable to any international publication.