Yearbook 2007
Aland. This fall’s election to the Åland Lagting became a major victory for the Liberals, who went from opposition to leadership to the Landscape Board in the self-governing Å. The center produced a mandate for eight, but the leader Roger Nordlund was allowed to leave the land council post and was instead elected as the Lagtinget’s president. The major losers of the election were the Social Democrats who lost half of their seats and stayed on three. The Social Democrats resigned from the government, which instead became a purely bourgeois coalition with liberals and center parties.
In 2006, Finland and Å lost in the European Court of Justice the fight to sell snus on Finnish territory. From the turn of the year, therefore, a new Åland laying act that allowed snus sales on Åland ferries only applied when they were on Swedish water – Sweden has an exemption from the EU snus ban. But in October, the European Commission again brought Finland and Å to the ECJ with a fine of EUR 2 million. The Åland ferries were considered to violate Finland’s ban on snus sales even when they were on Swedish water. The National Landscape Board immediately started work on a new law on total prohibition in the hope of being acquitted in the European Court of Justice.