Thousands of people and various goods travel daily on ferries between Finland, Sweden and Estonia, which are all part of the Schengen Area. The US Embassy reflected on the terrorism-related risks of that arrangement.

A diplomatic cable dating from 2005 says that ferry passengers on these busy routes and their luggage are rarely, if ever, checked. These concerns are known to the Finnish Transport Safety Agency's Maritime Safety Director, Tuomas Routa.

"This American comment is from the year 2005," he says. "Now it’s already 2011, and in these six years new technology and a new system for organising things have appeared.”

Port security has also been increased in other areas.

The diplomatic cable expresses the hopes that Finland will improve scanning of cargo destined for the United States. Routa says that Finnish preparedness in this instance has also improved.

The aim expressed in the cable was that, by the end of 2012, all cargo arriving into Finland would be scanned. This would naturally require large investments in ports.

According to the Finnish authorities, the US has extended that deadline at least until 2014. The Finnish Customs Board says that Finland does not plan to particularly rush to fulfil these requirements.

“These regulations have been discussed for years. The matter lies chiefly between the EU and the US. The Finnish Customs have plenty of other things to take care of,” says Erik Dannbäck of the National Board of Customs' Southern District Office.

See the original diplomatic cables (pdf file):

Subject: Finland supports cargo scanning, concerned about feeder ports

Subject: GWOT Assessment: Embassy Helsinki response