Finnish military detachment to be placed in high readiness as part of the standby period of the EU Nordic Battle Group

Press release 289/2007
20 December, 2007

The Finnish Government decided in its meeting on 20 December to propose that the President of the Republic would make a resolution to place a Finnish military detachment in a high state of readiness for the time period 1 January – 30 June 2008 as part of the standby period of the EU Battle Group formed by Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Ireland and Norway. In the event that the battle group would need to be used for an actual military operation, a separate resolution would be made in accordance with the Act on Crisis Management.

The battle groups are intended for autonomous military crisis management operations of the EU. At a time, there are two battle groups on standby. The tasks of the EU battle groups cover the crisis management tasks specified in the European Union Treaty and the European Security Strategy. The situations where the use of battle groups could come into question include military conflicts as well as unpredictable man-made or natural catastrophes. The maximum duration of a possible operation could be 120 days.

Additional information: Director Timo Kantola, Unit for Security Policy, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5480, and Director Mari Eteläpää, International Defence Policy Unit, Ministry of Defence, tel. +358 9 1608 8135