Heidi Hautala

Heidi Hautala in 2007

Heidi Anneli Hautala (born 14 November 1955 in Oulu) is a Finnish politician. She was the leader of the Finnish Green Party in 1987-1991, and a presidential candidate in 2000 and 2006. In the first round of the 2006 election she finished fourth of the eight candidates with a vote share of 3.5% (105,248 votes). She was a member of the national parliament from 1991 to 1995. After Finland joined the European Union (EU) in 1995, she was elected to the European Parliament. She returned to the national Parliament in the elections of 2003, and in 2009 re-elected to the European Parliament.

Hautala currently continues to work closely with EU affairs as a member of the Grand Committee. In addition, she has chaired the Green parliamentary group and currently she is the Chair of the Legal Affairs Committee in the Finnish Parliament. Also she is a member of the Parliament's Speaker's Council. As well Hautala is Chairperson of the National Equality Commission (TANE). She advocates environmental responsibility, openness in politics, and global justice.

Heidi Hautala is engaged to work also in organizations on the side of her work in Finnish Parliament. She is former President of Service Centre for Development Cooperation and current Member of the executive bureau of Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) which President is Martti Ahtisaari former President of Finland (1994–2000) and a United Nations diplomat and mediator, noted for his international peace work.

Hautala is the chairperson of the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum, established in 2007 to promote the Finnish-Russian dialogue and strengthen the Russian civil society.

In 2001, Hautala successfully took the Council of the European Union to the European Court of Justice over access to a document on arms export rules. The Court ruled that the ministers should have considered publishing at least part of the document. The so-called "Hautala case" set a precedent in European law for access to documents.

Hautala has a master's degree in horticulture. She has one child, Jasper (b. 1981).

Criticism of Vladimir Putin's Russia

Hautala is a rare Finnish politician who has criticized Vladimir Putin's Russia.

So when Heidi Hautala, a Green MP and former environment minister, blasted declining democratic standards in Vladimir Putin's Russia, the sense of shock in Helsinki was palpable. .... The nervous reaction to Ms Hautala's remarks has provided a faint echo of the self-censorship of the Soviet era, when the term "Finlandisation" was coined to describe countries that quietly tailored their politics and policies to suit Moscow. "The mindset has not totally changed. It's still there in the back of our heads," said Lasse Lehtinen, a Finnish MEP. Ms Hautala's worries were well founded, he added. "There is a general, growing feeling of unease about Russia for the past two years or so. We don't say it, but we think it."

— The Guardian article "Putin's shadow falls over Finland"

In 2008, she published the book "Venäjä-teesit. Vakaus vai vapaus" about Russia.

Books

• Venäjä-teesit. Vakaus vai vapaus. Tammi, 2008

External links

• Official Website of Heidi Hautala
• Official Website of Heidi Hautala in Parliament's Website
• Europe’s Greens condemn Finland’s nuclear power projects