Security policy The Greens are on different lines with Marin: Finland should not rule out joint EU borrowing for energy projects, says Iiris Suomela

Policy|Security policy

The Greens believes that Finland should not overthrow the EU’s joint borrowing or other similar arrangements to finance energy and defense projects in response to Russia’s war.

“Security and saving lives must now take precedence over the tightening of purse strings,” the Green Vice-President Iiris Suomela says to HS.

Based on Suomela’s statements, the ruling party Green is the prime minister on various lines Sanna Marinin (sd). Suomela says that she does not want to take a direct position on the Prime Minister’s statements or assess possible differences of opinion, but only comments on her own party’s attitude.

News agency Bloomberg joint borrowing is planned in the EU to finance major projects. Marin stressed on Wednesdaythat no proposal has been received from the Commission, but in principle Finland has a negative attitude towards new arrangements such as the recovery package.

“I know openings like this have been tuned. If I anticipated the formation of Finland’s position, we would be considerably critical of the common procedures. If we were to talk about a package of grants like the Recovery Facility, we would be negative about that. Pretty soon we would try to knock out tools like this, ”Marin said.

The Prime Minister said he remembered well the positions and statements made by Parliament last year regarding the recovery package. In connection with the approval of the recovery package, Parliament stated that Finland would no longer accept similar arrangements in the future.

The Greens considers that “it would be special” if the position of Parliament could not be re-examined if necessary.

According to Suomela, European sanctions in the energy sector would be a key means of responding to Russia’s actions, but they will require European countries to make rapid and substantial investments in alternative forms of energy.

“That money has to come from somewhere. Action in the energy sector is a very important non-military means of weakening Vladimir Putin governance and thus contribute to the resolution of the war in Ukraine. The choice of means cannot be left unused because the purse strings are too tight, ”Suomela explains.

Finland could again be a net contributor to the package, in effect financing investments in weaker European economies.

According to Suomela, however, the matter cannot be considered so simply.

“If we were talking about a package that would include both accelerating the green transition and strengthening the common defense, it is clear that Finland, as a border country with Russia, could in many respects also be a beneficial party. If we talk about strengthening European defense co-operation, Finland will clearly benefit. And it is difficult to calculate the value in euros of this benefit, because it is a matter of strengthening Finland’s security. ”

According to the Greens, “now is not the time to look only at what is below the line”.

“I really hope that the Finnish Parliament is now ready to put the security of Finland and Europe ahead of other issues. There is a war going on in Europe, ”says Suomela.

He also emphasized that the Commission had not yet made any proposals and that the Greens had no idea what the arrangement should look like. In Finland’s opinion, the key is that Finland does not rule out any form of EU economic policy co-operation.