- 9am (CET). The Finnish parliament meets to discuss the decision taken by the government on Sunday. No other parliamentary business is scheduled. According to the Hufvudstadsbladet newspaper the debate will end in a vote on joining Nato, with the government's ministers taking a decision shortly afterwards. A formal request to join Nato can then be submitted. The country's president and prime minister announced on Sunday that Finland would apply to join Nato.
- 10.30am. A debate takes place in Sweden’s parliament, which will discuss the conclusions of the Swedish government’s ‘security policy analysis group’. The debate is expected to take about three hours. It will start with a 20 minute speech from Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, after which the leaders of other parties will be invited to speak. Unlike the debate in the Finnish parliament, Sweden's debate will not end with a vote.
- Afternoon: Sweden's defence minister Peter Hultqvist confirmed to SVT on Monday morning that Sweden’s prime minister, Magdalena Andersson would call a government meeting where the decision on whether to join Nato will be made.
- 3pm. Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderate Party, are to hold a joint press conference. Will this be when the Nato decision is announced, or a preparation for it?
- 4.30pm. General Micael Byden, Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed forces, to hold a press conference.
- Afternoon/Evening: Finland to send in requests to join Nato.
- This week: Sweden to send request to join Nato. Hultqvist told SVT that it was not certain the formal request to join Nato would be sent in on Monday, but according to Expressen, officials at Sweden’s foreign ministry have been drafting the text of the formal request for weeks, meaning it is now complete and ready to be submitted. According to Sweden's TT newswire requests will be submitted "some time this week" to Nato's headquarters in Brussels by Axel Wernhoff, Sweden's ambassador to Nato.
Follow the national Nato debate with The Local’s podcast, Sweden in Focus.
Nato will assess the applications in May/June. According to Dagens Nyheter and SVT it could take Nato only a matter of days to assess the two countries’ expressions of interest and then offer Sweden a formal invitation to join the alliance.
Finland’s foreign minister Pekka Haavisto said on April 13th that the process “could take four months, it could take a year.”
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in April that he believed that the process could go rapidly.
Finland included a handy list of all the stages in its security policy analysis here.
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Finland confirms it will apply to join NATO as Sweden set to follow
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