Finland’s real integration into NATO might take years, officials say

Finland may now officially be a member of the Western military alliance, but the full integration process will still take some time, officials told EURACTIV.

Finland became the 31st member of NATO at the beginning of April, after a year-long accession process motivated by the threat Russia posed to European security in starting a war against its neighbour Ukraine.

A highly capable military, advanced alignment with NATO standards played in Helsinki’s favour, making it one of the fastest accession process in history.

However, “the whole process will take time,” one NATO diplomat told EURACTIV, stressing the accession would have many practical implications for experts and diplomats of the mission and in the capital.

“People who have never been in the military or worked in the military aspects of the Alliance oftentimes make the mistake of assuming that when you join NATO, your ambassador sits down at the North Atlantic Council table, and that is it,” another NATO diplomat said.

“It’s a very, very labour-intensive process of actually integrating fully with the planning, with a command structure, knowing exactly who does what on day one of a war […] with everything,” they said.

Finland will now be taken into account in NATO’s planning processes for deterrence and defence, and its troops under the alliance’s command. It now also takes parts of NATO drills as an alliance’s member.

“For us, it’s not accomplished overnight, it’s been accomplished over the years. What we need to do is get to the same place with Finland and Sweden, and vice versa,” the second NATO diplomat added.

“It took us years, and it’s gonna take them years to figure out all sorts of details,” they also said.

Helsinki’s moving woes

One of the main issues will be the sheer size of personnel required, as Finland’s mission to NATO will have to recruit additional officials to carry out the new tasks.

The delegation will soon be one of the biggest representations of Finland around the world as in one year, the representation had to more than almost double in size, with the expectation that related working groups in Brussels and the capital will be beefed up as well.

Finland plans to have 50 people in NATO’s delegation, which is three times more than before applying to membership.

As a member, Finland will also, in time, be granted a space in the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.

Currently, Finland’s delegation is located in NATO’s old headquarters, built during the Cold War – across the street from the shiny new building, from which the members work.

While the Finnish representation will “eventually” move from the old compound to the new “in the coming weeks and months”, it is not entirely clear when the transfer would be completed, one NATO official told EURACTIV.

At the moment Finland works from a “temporary space”, which means Finnish diplomats and experts have to divide their time between the two locations, commuting several times a day, since access and procedures to enter the buildings and share data or send reports differ.

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Realistically, the actual move could take up to two years, a NATO source briefed on the discussions told EURACTIV.

While in some ways the stage is set – Finland’s ‘sauna diplomacy’ arrived in a sense prior to its accession, with new sauna facilities being opened in the headquarters in December – the delay is mainly a security matter, EURACTIV understands.

The military alliance has to take into account national security standards in “building” the mission’s new space in headquarters, which differs between countries.

Long-term prospect for others

For Finland, getting Sweden into NATO is the “main priority”.

Both countries applied to become NATO members 10 months ago in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, abandoning decades of non-alignment.

“Sweden’s membership in NATO would be an important factor in strengthening the alliance’s deterrence and defence,” one diplomat told EURACTIV.

Beyond Finland and Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the only country with a so-called Membership Action Plan (MAP), and Georgia has formally informed NATO of their intention to join and have been declared “aspirant countries” in 2011.

Ukraine, an aspirant country since 2014, formally applied for membership in 2022, shortly after Russia formally annexed four Moscow-held regions of Ukraine.

Although prospects for Kyiv to join the alliance any time soon in the near future seem unlikely, Central and Eastern NATO members are pushing to give them a clear path with view of membership once the war is over.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

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