FINLAND: Ministry of Employment and Economy responds to query regarding review of Finland foreign investment under the Act on Monitoring of Foreigners` Corporate Acquisitions in Finland

Tuesday June 7 2011

In response to a query regarding superseding legislation or potential reform of Finland foreign investment under the Act on Monitoring of Foreigners` Corporate Acquisitions in Finland, the Ministry of Employment and Economy provided the following information:

“The Finnish Act that you are referring to (The Act on Monitoring of  Foreigners` Corporate Acquisitions in Finland, 30.12.1992/1612) is still in force. In the defence sector clearance is mandatory for all acqusitions and in the civil sector for an acquisitions of a companies with more than 1000 employees and a turnover of more than 167 M€. For civil sector companies, the clearance can be made either before, or after the acquisition.

 A Bill for an amendment of the Act was given to Parliament last November, but due to a big backlog of more important legislation in Parliament, we were not able to get the Bill approved before Parliament was dissolved in March. According to our constitutional system, all unapproved Bills expire when Parliament is dissolved. We had elections in April, and now a new Government is under formation. As soon as we have a new Government, we intend to discuss the situation with our new minister. At this stage it is difficult to say anything more about our future intentions.

If a new Bill will be given to Parliament later on this year, we will publish a press release (also in English) on our website www.tem.fi.“