Our partner Juhani Matinlassi successfully represented the Finnish Defence Forces before the Supreme Administrative Court in a matter concerning the procurement of a new small arms family and the establishment of domestic production capability. The procurement formed part of a Finnish Swedish joint initiative aimed at ensuring interoperable weapons systems and coordinated Security of Supply arrangements between the two countries.
The case centered on the applicability of Article 346 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which allows Member States to derogate from EU law when necessary to safeguard essential national security interests. The question before the Court was whether Finland was entitled to rely on this exemption and directly award the contract to a domestic supplier without applying the EU Defence and Security Procurement Directive.
Both the Supreme Administrative Court and the Market Court confirmed that the derogation was justified, ruling in favour of the Finnish Defence Forces. Parallel proceedings in Sweden reached a similar conclusion last year.
The judgment provides important guidance for future defence procurement, particularly in the context of Nordic cooperation, Security of Supply considerations and emerging defence technologies.
Please find below a link to the decision (in Finnish).
https://www.kho.fi/fi/index/paatokset/muitapaatoksia/1770012113176.html