Jari Vilén
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jari Vilén (b. 17 April 1964 in Kemi) is a Finnish politician and member of the Finnish Parliament, representing the National Coalition Party. He was first elected to the parliament in 1999, representing the district of Lapland. Vilén was re-elected in 2003.
Mr. Vilén served as the Minister of Foreign Trade and European Affairs in Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen's second cabinet in 2002–2003. As Minister for Foreign Trade he was responsible for OECD cooperation, competition and trade policy, consumer affairs and tourism. As Minister for European Affairs he was responsible of the enlargement negotiations of the European Union.
Mr. Vilén was a member of European Convention from 9 May–10 July 2003. Mr Vilén was chosen as Member of the European Union Convention on Future to be the successor for Mr. Matti Vanhanen, sitting Finnish Prime Minister. Its purpose was to produce a draft constitution for the European Union.
Mr. Vilén has been serving as a chairman of the Grand Committee of the Parliament of Finland since 18th of June 2004. Mr Vilén has become a prominent figure regarding European and international politics in Finland. He writes frequently about wide variety of issues concerning European Union, international, financial and economic policy, education, regional policy as well as defence policy. He has also published and edited writings on the future of European Union. Mr. Vilén acted also important role in Finland during Mohammed cartoon wars, being the first Finnish politician to condemn the publication of the cartoons in Finland and therefore influencing the Minister of Interiors' decision to initiate the criminal investigations against the organization Suomen Sisu, which published cartoons on their website
Mr. Vilén is also a member of the town council of the town of Rovaniemi Lapland. His other confidential posts includes the post of the Chairman on the European movement of Finland and chairman of the supervisory board of the Finnish Industrial Fund FINNFUND. Mr Vilén has also held numerous confidential posts during his career. Among others he has served as Chairman of the Finnish Teacher Student Association 1988 – 1989, as Vice-Chairman of the National Coalition Party Council 1995 –2000, Chairman of the Conservative Group at the Nordic Council 2001, Chairman of the National Educational Association 2004- and as Chairman for the Board of Kemijärvi Sculpture and Culture Foundation 2006-.
After finishing his studies and getting the degree of Master of Education from the University of Oulu 1990 Mr. Vilén continued his academic career as researcher in Trinity College and as teacher in St Andrews College, Dublin, Ireland 1990 – 1991, as assistant in the University of Oulu 1991 – 1992, and as researcher on a grant from the Academy of Finland in Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium 1992 - 1994. During 2001-2002 After Mr. Vilén's election as a minister University of Oulu reinvestigated after a tip Mr. Vilén's master thesis from 1989 and concluded that part of the thesis were copied from another source without proper notation. Mr. Vilén, his thesis supervisor and Faculty board were all reprimanded. University also stated that there were no legal basis to dissolve the acceptance of the thesis.
He has been married to Ms. Janina Vilén since 2005.
