Development cooperation | The coalition’s Heikki Autto would like to transfer development cooperation under the jurisdiction of the EU

Policy|Development cooperation

Development cooperation policy should be transferred from national jurisdiction to the jurisdiction of the European Union, a member of parliament in the third term of the coalition Heikki Autto presented at the Kultaranta discussions in the Presidential Palace on Monday.

Since the beginning of this election period, Autto has served as the chairman of the Parliament’s large committee. The large committee deals with the preparation of national policy related to European Union membership.

Help said that he was worried about how undemocratic development in many parts of the world enables the spread of oligarchy and corruption.

“In order to reverse this development, reforms related to real democracy should be brought about in different countries, which would get rid of corruption and oligarchy”, Autto explains his proposal to HS.

“The cooperation investments that would be made from Europe should be impressive, large enough and coordinated in order to really bring about the necessary change in these countries”, Autto continues his assessment.

In 2021, approximately 43 percent of all development cooperation in the world came from the European Union and its member states. According to Auto, this could be done with better coordination

According to him, by gathering Europe’s common resources together, it would be possible to “raise other nations to their feet one by one”.

Ministry of Shipping outgoing foreign minister Pekka Haavisto (green) takes a cautious approach to Auto’s presentation.

In his opinion, some member states of the EU have a colonial legacy resulting from old colonial power relations, which sometimes complicates the development cooperation that is already being carried out jointly in the EU at the moment. Haavisto mentions France, Belgium and Portugal as examples.

“In that sense, Finland’s direct relations and the Nordic trademark have been a very significant advantage,” Haavisto tells HS.

“If development cooperation is done only through the EU, there is this burden of history that we should not necessarily carry with us.”

Haavisto also reminds that a lot of development cooperation is already done through the EU. Unlike in a small country like Finland, however, according to him, the system is slow to change.

“Even if we have any political messages, they will not affect our financial support.”

This leads to a situation where the Union’s development cooperation is a single flow of money rather than cooperation that reacts to, for example, political changes and reforms in the target countries. For small countries, the latter is possible.

Haavisto also considers Auto’s goal of lifting nations to their feet a challenge.

“There’s a bit of a clang to it that might not fit to this day. We will come from the outside to state that we are now fixing your country,” says Haavisto.

Haavisto in the same context expresses his concern about how the future government’s intentions to cut development cooperation will affect not only Finland’s reputation, but also the support of African countries for Ukraine.

“Finland has said that Ukraine’s aid does not reduce our aid to other countries,” Haavisto reminds.

According to him, such changes may seem worrisome now that Russian representatives are actively touring African countries seeking support for their activities in Ukraine.