Yearbook 2002
Aland. Regular air services between Mariehamn and Stockholm, which were closed down in 2001, were resumed in January by a smaller Swedish company.
At the beginning of the year, the Åland Landscape Board issued clearing signs for flights over Å in the framework of the OSCE’s so-called Open Skies project. The decision sparked a debate about whether the overflows are detrimental to Å’s demilitarization.
Å’s special position as a Swedish-speaking landscape in Finland was also discussed during the year and the Landscape Board noted increased difficulties in communicating with the authorities in Helsinki in Swedish.
Before the legislature took a summer break, the opposition demanded distrust of the Landscape Board. The governing parties, the Åland Center and the Liberals, were accused of mismanaging the economy and risking increasing budget deficits that threatened welfare. However, the Autonomous Government won the vote and gained continued confidence in its policy.
The popular Åland spring hunt for seabirds was drawn during the year before the EU court. The European Commission believes that too many birds are being shot.
The Government of Finland and the Åland Landscape Board proposed amendments to the Self-Government Act. means that the president no longer has to preview certain laws that are decided by the legislation on Å.
Å’s running boy Janne Holmén wrote the history of Åland sports when he surprisingly took gold in the marathon in August at the European Championships in Munich.
After having enjoyed for a long time a notable prosperity in a regime of autonomy towards Finland, the archipelago was again overwhelmed, due to its geographical position, in the events of the Second World War. On the occasion of the first Russian-Finnish campaign of 1939-40, the government of Helsinki, with the tacit agreement of the major powers and the League of Nations, rearmed the archipelago, without however affecting its autonomy privileges. Demilitarized by the USSR at the end of the campaign (March 1940), the Åland were again rearmed by the Finns during the second conflict, to be definitively demilitarized after the Russian-Finnish armistice of September 19, 1944. A clause in this regard was introduced in art..
It should be noted that, during the conflict, the Åland population, who still recalls their Swedish origins, did not show themselves particularly inclined to favor Finland rather than the USSR, which earned them particularly favorable treatment from the Soviet side., with the integral preservation of the merchant fleet, which constitutes 20% of the total Finnish commercial fleet.
