Minister for international development Heidi Hautala, who also holds the portfolio of steering ownership of state firms, has admitted that a civil servant in her department prevented a criminal complaint against Greenpeace activists after they boarded icebreakers last year in Helsinki.
The ships are operated by the state-owned firm Arctia Shipping.
In a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, Hautala said that a senior civil servant, Pekka Timonen, had told Arctia that state-owned companies should have more tolerance for NGO activism than normal enterprises. The former chair of the Green League admitted she was aware of his actions and supported the move.
”Timonen had a discussion with the company with the message that a fully state-owned firm should be able to withstand NGO activity in a different way than one with a different type of ownership and that the situation should not be exacerbated unless it was absolutely necessary, said Hautala in a statement.
Timonen was then head of the Ownership Steering Department of the Prime Minister’s Office. He is now Head of the Labour and Trade Department at the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
Timonen said later that the intervention had come at his initiative, and that as far as he recalled Hautala was not informed until afterwards.
Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen says he is waiting for an explanation today from Hautala before deciding whether or not she should resign.