The EU Ministerial Committee has determined that Finland opposes the Spitzenkandidaten process for European elections and the reform of EU institutions. JEF Finland considers Finland’s position regrettable.
According to the EU Ministerial Committee’s position, Finland does not support transnational candidate lists in European Parliament elections, nor the so-called Spitzenkandidaten process for choosing the President of the European Commission.
“Finland is wrong to oppose the Spitzenkandidaten process”, JEF Finland’s President Tuomas Tikkanen says.
Among the European Parliament’s largest groups, the EPP (which includes the National Coalition Party) and ALDE (which includes the Centre Party) support the Spitzenkandidaten process.
“The Spitzenkandidaten process isn’t perfect, but it’s extremely important, since it brings openness and transparency to the choice of the Commission President, which was previously based on secret negotiations. The Commission President wields major power and is the face of the EU, so it’s important that voters get at least an indirect say in choosing who takes on that role.”
JEF Finland considers Finland’s position to be wrong also when it comes to transnational lists and the UK’s parliamentary seats.
“Transnational lists would have increased the visibility of European political parties and taken a step towards a European-level political system that complements national politics. That would, in turn, increase the transparency of the European Union’s operations and the accountability of European parties.”
JEF Finland considers that transnational lists could have been implemented as a closed-list election, as is used, for example, in Sweden’s and Norway’s national elections.
“This would have allowed parties to place candidates representing a range of regions, genders, age groups and nationalities evenly at the top of the lists and among the likely winners. This would also have made electoral-tactical sense for European parties.”
“The interpretation put forward publicly, that the model would be bad for small countries, is therefore misleading. What matters is how the transnational lists and their electoral system are designed.”
Finland also does not support distributing the UK’s European Parliament seats to other member states. The proposal approved by the European Parliament involves adding parliamentary seats for countries that, as a result of population growth, have proportionally too few representatives in the European Parliament. Under the proposal, Finland would receive one additional seat in parliament, as would Sweden.
“In the domestic EU debate, emphasising the national interest seems to be the dominant theme. Well, here it is, on offer — yet for some reason the proposal is being given a red light.”
“Overall, the EU Ministerial Committee’s positions are regrettable. Finland’s stance has been described favourably in public, but when it comes to major EU institutional reform projects, Finland seems to be reduced to a ‘no’ movement — ready to shoot things down, but not to put forward its own visions or bold openings.” Tikkanen states.
Further information:
Tuomas Tikkanen
President
[email protected]
+358 40 523 5768
Mikko Kymäläinen
Secretary General
[email protected]
+358 40 911 2049