Finnish model of comprehensive security is a strategic framework that forms the foundation of Finland’s resilience, emphasizing a whole-of-society approach to safeguard critical societal functions against a wide range of threats. These threats include not only traditional security risks like terrorism and cyberattacks but also natural disasters, severe weather events, civil unrest, food and water disruptions and migration waves.
The model integrates collaboration among public authorities, businesses, organizations, and citizens, ensuring preparedness and response capabilities under all circumstances, rooted in normal-time legislation and arrangements.
Finland’s model has gained international recognition, discussed in regional organizations around the Baltic Rim and in the Nordic and Arctic contexts. The EU is seemingly moving to a wide preparedness strategy under the next multiannual financial framework.
Key features of the model include broad threat recognition, which addresses both human-caused (like hybrid attacks) and natural threats (climate-related crises), whole-of-government approach where security and preparedness are embedded across all public policy and legislation, with effective inter-agency communication. The model includes also whole-of-society engagement involving private companies, NGOs, cultural institutions and citizens, fostering bottom-up resilience alongside top-down measures.
Finland’s model has gained international recognition as Finland is a global leader in resilience and preparedness, creating opportunities to share expertise, technologies, and services with other nations and organizations.
After recent global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine, Finland can position itself as a hub for resilience solutions, attracting interest from governments and organizations seeking to enhance their own security systems.
The model emphasizes public-private partnerships, which drive innovation in areas like cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection and crisis management tools. Finnish companies can provide technologies and services developed for resilience, such as secure communication systems, disaster response equipment or data analytics for threat detection.
Finland can offer consulting services, training programs and capacity-building initiatives to other countries or regions looking to adopt similar resilience models. This includes sharing best practices for whole-of-society preparedness, citizen engagement, and cross-sector coordination.
By promoting the resilience model, countries can build stronger diplomatic and trade relationships among like-minded nations prioritizing security. This open doors for businesses in sectors like defense, technology, and infrastructure.
Finland’s advocacy for an EU-wide preparedness strategy, as outlined in President Niinistö’s report, positions Finnish expertise at the forefront of EU policy. In March 2024, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tasked former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö with drafting a report on enhancing the EU’s civilian and military preparedness. The resulting 165-page report, “Safer Together: Strengthening Europe’s Civilian and Military Preparedness and Readiness”, was released on October 30, 2024. It builds on the Finnish model of comprehensive security and proposes an EU-wide framework to address modern threats.
The report emphasizes moving away from reactive crisis management to proactive preparedness, addressing interconnected crises like pandemics, the war in Ukraine, climate impacts and hybrid threats. The report encourages also the EU to adopt an all-hazards approach inspired by Finland’s model. The EU should prepare for all types of threats—natural, human-caused, civilian, or military—through an integrated framework.
Key recommendations in the whole-of-society approach focus engagement of governments, private sectors, NGOs, and citizens in resilience-building. Same time it is important to promote active citizen involvement through risk education and preparedness communication to enhance societal resilience without causing alarm.
There are eight core areas for resilience outlined in the report including cross-sector coordination, situational awareness, civilian-military cooperation and public-private partnerships. Civil protection authorities are pivotal in bridging national and sectoral divides.
The report proposes a unified legal framework to standardize roles and responsibilities across governance levels for rapid, harmonized emergency responses. It aims to embed “preparedness-by-design” in all EU regulatory frameworks and operations, promotes stronger collaboration with the private sector to leverage innovations, especially against hybrid and cyber threats and encourages joint cross-border procurement to enhance resilience capabilities.
The report calls for at least 20 percent of the EU budget to be allocated to security and crisis preparedness, a significant increase given competing priorities like climate neutrality (30% of the budget through 2027). It also proposes the Securing Europe Facility (SEF) to consolidate funding for civil security, protection, and emergency response, linking research with operational deployment and advocates for stronger foresight, intelligence-sharing and efficient crisis decision-making processes across the EU.
The report raises up the need for assertive EU diplomacy to address hybrid attacks and scale up defense efforts. It recommends to prioritize fortifying infrastructure to withstand disruptions, including cross-border training and public education initiatives.
The report acknowledges that the EU lacks shared strategic culture, small egalitarian society, and high institutional trust. In member states it is now time to prioritize security over diverse national priorities and narrow the distance from citizens, which may hinder effective public involvement.
Hopefully EU’s complex political system and varying member state priorities do not limit implementation of the ideas presented in the Niinistö’s report. By leveraging the model countries can enhance their economic and diplomatic influence while contributing to global security.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Finland
