Baltic Sea Snuff Conflict

Ever heard of the Aland Islands? No? Me, neither. Yet an interesting quagmire to the EU Lisbon Treaty ratification process has emerged up in the Baltic region where these semi-autonomous Finnish islands are located. Der Speigel has a story today about how the traffic in snuff based in the Alands - selling it off their boats to both Finnish and Swedish customers -has led to an uproar over supporting the EU treaty, because snuff is banned by the EU. According to Der Speigel, the snuff trade provides 40% of the islands' economy. The really interesting issue here is not whether snuff presents a serious health risk to citizens of the EU, but how Finland - as well as the EU - chooses to deal with historically autonomous regions within its borders. Whenever national leaders say things like "he would not allow the autonomous Aland Islands to threaten the European Union's treaty," the entire premise of consensual union starts to seem more than a little shaky.