Emeritus Professor of Employment Law, Seppo Koskinen, says that the selection of president Alexander Stubb's son Oliver Stubb for a coveted internship at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs (FIIA) does not look good from the outside.

He says there are grounds to suspect that the FIIA has not applied the same selection criteria for all applicants.

"The selection of trainees is not subject to the same strict criteria as when appointing civil servants, but nobody can be discriminated against or favoured on the basis of, for example, their relatives," said Koskinen.

"Looking from the outside, this does not look good."

Yle reported last week that the Finnish President's son Oliver was chosen as a research assistant at the FIIA's research programme, which has a special focus on Finnish foreign policy, northern European security and Nato.

There were 59 applications for the post, and five candidates were invited for an interview.

Selection criteria questioned

Programme Director Harri Mikkola told Yle that Stubb's selection was down to his academic record, high motivation and command of the research topics.

Koskinen does not find that a credible explanation.

"Motivation was surely high for all of them, but that Oliver Stubb's was so much greater that there was a reason for him to be taken on…..Especially when the other candidates were further along in their studies and some of them also had the right kind of work experience."

Documents obtained by Ilta-Sanomat suggest that the other candidates interviewed for the post were much more advanced in their studies than Oliver Stubb, and some of them also had work experience in the international politics field.

Stubb has just completed the first year of a bachelor's degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Exeter University in the UK.

Koskinen says that both the trainee and the workplace benefit more when the person selected has completed more of their studies.

"Many trainees seek a placement towards the end of their studies, in the hope of securing employment in the same organisation," said Koskinen.

Iltalehti also reported that Stubb was chosen even though he was ineligible for the same funding as the applicants from Finnish universities, and the cost to FIIA was therefore slightly higher.

That makes the decision look even worse, according to Koskinen. He stresses that even state-adjacent bodies like FIIA should adhere to general principles of good administration.

"If you are spending money, then the spending should have good grounds," said Koskinen. "If the most qualified [candidate] isn't chosen, then there should be good reasons for that too."

Lack of transparency increases suspicions

FIIA has declined to publish the detailed reasoning behind Stubb's appointment, with the documents released including large sections of redacted text.

The institute justifies that decision by saying they include personal information.

Koskinen says that explanation only adds to the suspicions.

"The selection document cannot be totally full of confidential information," said Koskinen. "On the contrary, it should be public. This kind of decision, where almost everything is redacted, is not credible."

Koskinen says that the FIIA should publish the criteria that informed their decision. Otherwise there will be suspicions and fears that the president's son could in the worst case scenario be used to gather information about foreign policy.

"It is clear that if you take on the president's son for a job, you think you will get some kind of benefit," said Koskinen. "If the research topic is foreign policy, there can't be a better source than the president's son. If the selection criteria are not published, that fear only grows."

Koskinen says the situation is regrettable for Oliver Subb himself, but he also says president Stubb could have prevented the questions arising.

"The president could surely have considered, if he knew about this, whether it is wise for his own son to seek employment right now in the field where the president himself operates," said Koskinen. "That's a very delicate situation."