Finnish economic affairs minister Mika Lintilä (Cen) said that he is not concerned about an Italian governor's proposal that Italy's parliamentary vote on Finland's accession to Nato should be halted.

On Wednesday, the governor of Italy's Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, Massimiliano Fedriga, asked his country's parliament to suspend the ratification of Finland's Nato membership due to recently-announced plans by Finnish marine and energy equipment firm Wärtsilä to stop production at its facility in Trieste, Italy.

"I wouldn't consider this a very serious situation," Lintilä said on Thursday, adding that he does not think the actions of a single company would determine whether Finland could join the military alliance.

"The Nato application is purely foreign- and defence policy," he said.

Earlier this month, Wärtsilä announced plans to move production of its 4-stroke engines in Italy to a Finnish facility, in the western city of Vaasa. The firm added that the closure in Italy would likely lead to around 450 redundancies at the Trieste plant.

A member of the right-wing populist Lega party, governor Fedriga has called the plant shutdown unacceptable, saying that Finland and Italy should become strategic allies as the Nordic country joins Nato.

Business publication Kauppalehti was first to report in Finland on this story.

Paper: Vote delayed until after elections

Fedriga asked the Italian Parliament to delay the ratification vote until the Wärtsilä issue is resolved.

Business publication Kauppalehti reported that its sources suggested Italy's ratification process will not progress until parliamentary elections are held at the end of September.

Wärtsilä's president and CEO, Håkan Agnevall, told Yle that the decision to move the engine production from Trieste to Vaasa was a difficult one that took some time to consider.

"I cannot say much about the Nato process, but it will be a big change for Trieste. I understand that [the closure] causes strong emotions to surface. I think that [the governor's] comments need to be seen from a local perspective," Agnevall said.

Wärtsilä has not made any changes following the governor's statements. Agnevall said that the company has a good dialogue with both the Italian and Finnish governments.