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So was the title of Björn Månsson’s interesting leader article in this morning’s Hufvudstadsbladet.

Revisiting the issue of a separate European parliament seat to represent Åland (as Åland politicians are demanding) or for the wider group of all Swedish-speaking Finns (as Henrik Lax and some others have raised), the leader article unveils some interesting facts which make the demand not so unreasonable as it might have previously seemed.

Månsson draws the reader to the attention of the case of the German-speaking minority in Belgium. Like Åland, they have their own parliament and effective autonomy in their own region. The German minority in Belgium are around 73 000 people - rather more than Åland (around 27 000) but small compared to the total number of around 300 000 Swedish-speaking Finns. Yet, the German-speaking Belgians are guaranteed their own place in the European parliament. And that’s despite their proportion of the entire Belgian population being only 0,7 %. Swedish-speaking Finns make up around 6 % of Finland’s population; Ålanders account for about 0,5 %. Looking at those statistics, it’s harder to argue against a specific Swedish-speaking mandate.

Månsson goes on to highlight the case of the German-speaking minority in Italy, the residents of South Tirol. They also have, practically, a safe seat in the European parliament. What’s especially interesting here is that this German minority is around 290 000 in number - i.e. more or less exactly the same in number as the Swedish-speaking Finns. Yet, looking at them as a proportion of Italy’s entire population, they comprise just 0,5 % - a percentage that is equivalent to Åland’s share of Finland’s people. Surely then, Åland’s demands for its own seat in the EU parliament are entirely reasonable.

Perhaps it’s not as easy as that. Månsson points out that it’s much easier for Italy to give away one seat to a minority as due to Italy’s large overall population it gets an entire 78 places in the EU parliament. But for Finland, with only 13 European parliament mandates, giving one mandate away to a district of just 0,5% of the people would seem highly inequitable.

So, perhaps Finland should ask the EU for an extra seat to be given to Åland. According to Hufvudstadsbladet, that seems an unlikely option. The EU has thrown that option out of the window for fear of opening a Pandora’s box where all of Europe’s autonomous areas demand their own individual seat. So, perhaps the second option is to give a mandate to the entire Swedish-speaking population. According to Månsson, that could be secured by introducing a requirement for one of Finland’s MEPs to have Swedish as their mother tongue.

For me, a Swedish speaking mandate sounds impracticable. If we were to use the suggestion in this Hbl leader, how would we make sure that the electorate vote in one MEP with Swedish as their mother tongue? If the first 13 people elected all have Finnish as their mother tongue, do you deprive number 13 of his or her seat and install the most popular Swedish-speaker even if they got a lot less votes than any in the top 13? Surely that would cause an outcry - not least in some quarters of the Finnish language press. It would also be impossible to create a geographic voting district - Finnish and Swedish speakers live side by side. Svenskfinland is not a clear cut geographic entity.

In any case, even if there were to be a Swedish-speaking seat created, would the people of Åland be satisfied? As Månsson writes, probably not. There are many people on Åland who don’t even consider themselves Swedish-speaking Finns (finlandssvenskar). For them, they are Ålanders (ålänningar) - and that is a status apart. For them, it’s only direct representation for Åland - and Åland alone - that will do.

Crown Princess Victoria will arrive in Mariehamn this evening on a two day long visit to Åland. It’s the first time Åland  has received an official visit from a member of the Swedish royal family since it received autonomy in 1921.

The run up to the event has been covered in Åland’s media (which is vibrant for a population of around 25 000, with 2 daily newspapers and 2 radio channels) widely and Åland is expecting many members of the Finnish mainland’s press to cover the event. The Swedish royal family are always popular fare in Finnish tabloids and gossip magazines.

Mariehamn has also been planning for the visit by the heir to the Swedish throne, with many buildings around the main square getting a fresh lick of paint. During Thursday, when people will have a chance to meet the crown princess in the main square, drivers can expect traffic problems as parking places are closed down and roads closed.

The newspaper Nya Åland reports that royalist football fans will face a difficult decision. Crown Princess Victoria is scheduled to arrive at the main square in Mariehamn at the same time as kick-off is scheduled for IFK Mariehamn’s league match against VPS (from Vasa) - 18.30

In the future it will be hotels without pornographic tv-channels for Åland’s provincial government employees when they travel outside of Åland on business trips.

The requirement is part of the Åland provincial government’s new travel policy. The porn-free model is taken from Sweden, until now the only country that lists “porn-free” hotels.

“We know that it can be difficult to book porn-free hotels on the Finnish mainland and in the other Nordic countries. But, that is our goal”, says the head of Åland’s provincial civil service Arne Selander, according to FNB-STT newsagency.

Looks like there’s going to be a lot less “Other refreshments” showing up on the hotel receipts of Åland’s officials.

The Swedish people’s party’s  (Sfp) current member of the European parliament Henrik Lax has said that he will not be standing for reelection in next year’s European parliamentary election. Lax, who is 63-years old, justifies his decision to leave the European parliament after one period by saying that he wants more time to relax and take it easy after having spent 40 years in political life, according to the newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet.

Lax was elected to the European parliament in 2004 after Astrid Thors (who nowadays is the minister of migration in the national government and Sfp’s Helsinki MP in the Finnish parliament).  He was elected in 14th place out of Finland’s 14 MEP seats. From next year’s election, Finland will lose a place and only have 13 seats available making it all the more difficult for Sfp to be able to obtain elected representation at the EU level.

Lax hopes that there will be a place created for Swedish-speakers in future representation to the European parliament.  Åland’s government is already loudly calling for its own separate MEP constituency and Åland’s parliament could vote down the Lisbon treaty if concessions are not made by Helsinki. Lax suggests that one seat reserved for Swedish-speakers could be an alternative saying that there ought to be representation for the language minority.

Returning to this subject, the BBC has now picked up on this matter.

The 25 000 or so Ålanders find themselves in the international media!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2008/03/could_finland_snuff_out_the_li.html

There is every chance that Åland’s provincial parliament, the lagting, could vote to reject the EU’s Lisbon Treaty (the replacement for the previously proposed European constitution) causing a constitutional dilemma for Finland. Finland’s parliament, the riksdag (or eduskunta), will almost certainly say yes to the treaty when it comes up for handling there.

Today, there are 10 members of the lagting who have said they will vote no. If 11 should vote against, it would fall. Sceptism towards the European Union has increased in recent times on Åland. Åland wants its own member of the European parliament and the right to speak for itself in the European courts. Mariehamn is also irritated by the EU’s decision to forbid snus sales on the islands and on Åland-flagged ferries (a decision made even worse by the fact it originally arrived in only Finnish and French).

If Åland does vote no, it will give Finland three options to continue:

• Finland can negotiate with Brussels to allow Åland to exit the EU. This would put Åland in a similar position to the Faroe Islands and Greenland which are both Danish territories but outside EU.
• Finland can accept Åland’s decision and not ratify Lisbon - however, this would mean the treaty would not enter into force in the entirety of the union - which would be politically unacceptable to other member-states.
• Finland can negotiate with Åland to reconsider their no-vote. Doubtless, Åland would demand concessions - probably in the shape of their own MEP, something which Finland could deliver by creating a separate election district for just Åland in EU parliament elections. This would not go down well on the mainland though.

Ending up outside of the EU could also present disadvantages for Ålanders. They would probably have the right of freedom of movement (and especially residence and employment) restricted, both for themselves and their goods and capital.