Sipilä for monitoring critical infrastructure

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä on Wednesday said technological development brings a new kind of critical infrastructure and emphasised its monitoring to avoid any risk to the society.

“Authorities must monitor this development and ensure that it does not lead to direct risks or threats to the society, either now or in the future,” Sipilä told the meeting of Nordic prime ministers held in Oslo.

Topics at the meeting included foreign direct investments in critical infrastructure and current issues at the UN Security Council.

“People in Finland have positive views on foreign investments because they are of great importance to the Finnish economy and are currently on the rise. The critical infrastructure and services needed to maintain the vital functions of the society must, however, be secured in a way that guarantees sufficient Finnish content in terms of both skills and the maintenance of systems,” Sipilä emphasised.

The EU is currently working on a regulation establishing a framework for screening foreign direct investments. For Finland, it is important that the regulation does not create unnecessary delays in the monitoring and confirmation processes at the national level. Individual countries will continue to have the final say concerning investments.

Finland is currently preparing legislation related to national security in land use and the transfer of immovable property in connection with investments from outside the EEA. The government proposal is due to be submitted to parliament before the end of the year.

Sipilä had a bilateral meeting on Wednesday morning with Erna Solberg, prime minister of host country Norway. He also met with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday evening and had meetings with Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir and Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas earlier during the trip.

The meetings focused on bilateral relations and Finland’s upcoming EU presidency. The discussion with Prime Minister May also addressed the issue of Brexit.