According to public broadcaster YLE, the pact, officially called the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA), is part of the process of Helsinki’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The United States has such agreements with about twenty countries, and even Sweden, which recently ratified its accession to the Atlantic Alliance, has also ratified a similar text.

The proposal adopted a few months ago includes the opening of up to 15 military bases in Finland to U.S. forces, which will be able to import their own equipment, supplies, material and military equipment to that territory.

Last June, however, Finland’s Constitutional Law Commission ruled that the DCA must receive the support of a qualified two-thirds majority in Parliament.

This is because the pact impinges on several aspects of the Magna Carta, as it defines the conditions for cooperation between Helsinki and Washington and allows the U.S. to operate in Finland without much bureaucracy in crisis and peacetime situations.

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