JEF Finland awards its 2025 Sleepyhead Day recognition to MP Teemu Keskisarja (Finns Party). The recognition is given annually to a person who has fallen especially far behind in the development of the EU debate. This year Keskisarja earns the attention for his sharp break from EU climate policy, as shown by his appearance on Yle’s Ykkösaamu programme.
The European Commission’s proposal to cut emissions by 90 percent by 2040 is part of an effort to keep global warming below two degrees. Keskisarja opposed this proposal ideologically, claiming that the matter “hasn’t even gone through the government on its summer break” and that the Finns Party won’t give it “anything resembling a green light.”
Keskisarja defends “down-to-earth nature conservation,” but sees the EU’s ambitious climate targets as a threat to rural Finns and private property — a stance that inevitably lags behind the EU’s shared goal of tackling the climate crisis.
“EU climate policy cannot be based on nostalgia or resistance. We need to act together, and that also requires Finnish political leadership. EU climate policy doesn’t need more foot-draggers. With the Sleepyhead Day recognition, we want to wake Keskisarja — and all decision-makers along with him — up to the fact that there’s no longer room to sleep through climate issues,” says JEF Finland’s President Nea Baarman.
For more information:
Nea-Bettina Baarman
President, JEF Finland
+358 44 330 6224