Europe is living through major challenges that we can only meet as a unified continent and union. Our country’s next government must commit, in its government programme, to Finland being an open, international country that promotes and speeds up free trade and the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss on a global level, and that defends a politics based on human rights and the rule of law, as well as international cooperation. JEF Finland demands that government negotiators give not an inch to romanticising leaving the EU or weakening the European community when forming the government.
“The economic and geopolitical situation prevailing in our continent calls for carefully considered decisions, ones that must not be made hastily, driven by populist contempt. Shouting from the back row doesn’t help. Finland must be a proactive EU member state, one that helps determine the EU’s direction through its own actions”, states JEF Finland’s President Amanda Alvesalo. “That’s why it’s alarming that, in the current situation, politicians can find their way into power who believe that leaving the world’s strongest political and economic union would be a desirable political direction.”
Moving from one crisis to the next has taken a toll on everyone, at both the societal and individual level. Yet we have been able to trust that, in times of need, our EU partners stand behind us, and we behind them. Reciprocal cooperation as part of the EU has benefited Finland enormously in terms of the economy, security, and social justice. In these stormy, crisis-ridden times, sowing disorder by flirting with a Finnish EU exit is irresponsible politics, and it must not be given any foothold.
“The most responsible thing a decision-maker elected in Finland can do is to cherish and strengthen European cooperation. Only this way can Finland have influence globally”, Alvesalo concludes.
Further information:
Amanda Alvesalo
President
[email protected]
+358 50 321 6600