In just over a year, Vake, the Finnish state-owned development company paid 100,000 euros to the lobbying agency Rud Pedersen, current-affairs magazine Suomen Kuvalehti reported.
The company was founded in 2016 by the three-party coalition government led by then-Prime Minister Juha Sipilä (Cen).
According to the publication, half of the amount was spent on 'stakeholder communication services'. The public affairs company reportedly lobbied political influencers to preserve Vake’s position and to approve its strategy completed in the fall of 2019.
Saara Mattero, Vake's Public Affairs Director told Suomen Kuvalehti that the services included, among other things, a monthly “public affairs report” and collecting of contact information for Vake's own use. In addition, Rud Pedersen provided the company with an analysis of the government program and its action plan, as well as top EU projects.
Mattero said most of the several hundred meetings with hundreds of influential individuals from different fields were done by Vake’s leaders themselves.
The project was managed by Esa Suominen, managing partner at Rud Pederson’s Finnish office. Suominen previously served under the office of Antti Rinne (SDP) as State Secretary in 2015.
From the autumn of 2019, Riina Nevamäki, who had been Sipilä's special advisor until the previous June, also participated in Vake's project. She became a shareholder in Rud Pedersen in early October 2019.
The state-owned investment and development company was established by the Sipilä government in 2016 to invest in Finland’s infrastructure.
In 2019 the Centre Party stayed in government after the Social Democratic Party won elections, swapping the right-leaning National Coalition Party and Finns Party for a centre-left administration led by the Social Democrats including the Green Party, Left Alliance and the Swedish People's Party.
In mid-September, Vake announced that it will be transferred under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and its name will be changed to the Climate Fund (lmastorahasto).