Debate: This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Finland, Petteri Orpo
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 MARCH 2024
Speaker: Manfred Weber
Political group: PPE
Country: Austria
Language: EN

Finland is a true EPP – European – success story, and also an EPP success story. The first country in Europe to introduce a universal election law for parliamentary elections in ‘96. In ‘97, when women had no voting rights in most of Europe, they were already 19 members in the Finnish Parliament – women, female members – in the Finnish Parliament. Since gaining independence in 1917, Finland has made an incredible journey: from being one of the poorest countries in Europe, it has become one of the most successful. And today, Finland is a European leader in gender equality, climate policy and innovation. Probably it has something to do with ‘sisu’, the special determination that defines the Finnish national character. And, dear Petteri, you and Kokoomus have definitely shown some special determination in always standing up for Finland’s accession to NATO. The Finnish Socialists and Greens changed their minds about joining NATO only after the invasion of Ukraine, while already in 2018, you were warning Europe, I quote: ‘The crisis in Ukraine, recent terrorist attacks and hybrid threats have shown that both the EU’s defence cooperation and NATO are needed and that they can complement each other.’ And that is really true EPP leadership.  Finland makes both NATO and the European defence stronger. Not only do you bring the strongest artillery in Western Europe, an army capable of fighting in -40 degrees, but also the experience of guarding Europe’s longest border with Russia. Finns know what it means to have Russians as neighbours. Like the Ukrainians, you fought in cold trenches and frozen forests to stay free. The only difference is that you stood up to Stalin alone, whereas today we stand together against Putin. This means not only supporting Ukraine as long as this takes, but also stopping Putin’s hybrid warfare against the Finnish border, as you said. Finland also is currently building up a fence to protect our external border. We, as the EPP do what is necessary to do and, dear Petteri, the Finnish border is a European border, as you said. The Finnish border is NATO border. No dictator can use illegal migration as a weapon to blackmail us as Europeans. Standing together always means to build up also a competitive Europe. And when it comes to innovation, the Finns are hard to beat. Finland is today a world leader in digital infrastructure, the first country in Europe to build up a 5G network and it is already ready to implement 6G. Finland, Europe’s forest, has made innovation the basis of its climate policy. Companies are investing currently EUR 200 billion, 70 % of Finland’s GDP, in our green transition. Almost 1 in 3 Finnish employees works directly or indirectly in the tech sector. So you are proving that innovation is the way to more, to better quality jobs. And how do we do so? High quality education, investment and research and development for more than 3 % of GDP and cutting red tape. To become more innovative, Europe must become more like Finland. Dear Petteri, your leadership is making Europe stronger, safer and ready to face not only today’s challenges, but also tomorrow’s challenges. Thank you for being with us.