The accession process of Finland and Sweden will be carried out by shortcut procedures, if they submit their expected formal application to join NATO early next week.
European diplomatic sources who spoke to APM said that the two Scandinavian countries are expected to submit a membership application on May 17. If that happens, the signing of the Accession Protocol will take place by the end of the month at the latest. This means that Finland and Sweden will have been granted observer country status and will be able to sit at the table at the NATO Summit on 28-30 June in Madrid, as well as at all subsequent meetings of the North Atlantic Alliance.
After the first signing of the Accession Protocol, it will be followed by its ratification by the parliaments of the 30 NATO member states - a process which usually takes between six and eighteen months, but in the case of Finland and Sweden is expected to be completed by the end of the year at the latest.
During this period, Sweden and Finland will not yet be full members of NATO and therefore will not formally have the security guarantees provided by Article 5 of the Treaty. However, the two countries have received serious security assurances from powerful NATO countries such as Britain and the U.S.
Next weekend, the foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden are invited to the informal NATO Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Berlin, where the above-mentioned accession process will be confirmed. As noted by the same European diplomatic sources , the speed with which the accession process of the two countries is advancing is unprecedented by NATO standards.
Source: Proto Thema
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