How Finland is shaking up the European Union

Finland’s politics are complicating a quick European Union agreement on the details of a Portugal bailout. Portugal’s embattlated government and many European leaders want to wrap up the controversial bailout quickly and quietly, by mid-May if possible. Enter Finland: [T]he head of the Eurogroup of finance minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, called that too short a deadline ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Finland's politics are complicating a quick European Union agreement on the details of a Portugal bailout. Portugal's embattlated government and many European leaders want to wrap up the controversial bailout quickly and quietly, by mid-May if possible. Enter Finland:

Finland’s politics are complicating a quick European Union agreement on the details of a Portugal bailout. Portugal’s embattlated government and many European leaders want to wrap up the controversial bailout quickly and quietly, by mid-May if possible. Enter Finland:

[T]he head of the Eurogroup of finance minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, called that too short a deadline as there is currently only a caretaker government in Finland following elections which saw an anti-EU party leap into third place.

"Mid-May seems to me too short not due to the plan itself but due to the real difficulty of getting a legitimate Finnish decision," the Luxembourg prime minister said during a visit to Paris.

Finland’s new parliament convened on Thursday for the first time since April 17 elections that dramatically shifted the balance of the house by catapulting the anti-EU True Finns into third place and there are a large number of lawmakers hostile to approving a bailout for Portugal.

True Finn leaders have made opposition to another bailout a central theme, though they’ve also insisted that they won’t be irresponsible:

With its charismatic leader Mr Soini, the party rejects rescue funds for EU "squanderers", as well as opposing immigration.

Speaking on Finnish TV, the True Finns’ leader said he wanted to change the terms of the bail-out for Portugal.

"The package that is there, I do not believe it will remain," he said.

At the same time, he sought to assure other EU states that his party posed no threat.

"We are not extremists, so you can sleep safely," he said.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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