What Mauri spoke about.

25

Apr

2024

FI Speech

Watch

Framework of measures for strengthening Europe’s net-zero technology products manufacturing ecosystem (Net Zero Industry Act) (debate)

Mr President, Europe needs a new impetus for research, innovation and production in critical sectors. The Net Zero Regulation is a good response to this need. I am pleased that we managed to place biomaterials and technologies among the net-zero industries. Thank you, in particular, to the chairman of the committee. However, the implementation of the Regulation is now in a hurry. In many Member St…

24

Apr

2024

FI Speech

Watch

Forging a sustainable future together: economic, social and territorial challenges for a competitive, cohesive and inclusive Europe (debate)

Mr President, according to the Treaty, European cohesion policy should reduce the economic disparities between Member States, but also the disparities within Member States. How's it been? I have the statistics here and they show that the differences between the Member States have been reduced very significantly. Above all, congratulations to those who have been the most successful in this regard –…

13

Mar

2024

FI Speech

Watch

Cohesion policy 2014-2020 – implementation and outcomes in the Member States (debate)

Mr President, thank you to the rapporteur for a very good report. However, it does not provide an answer to one important question in my view. While the role of cohesion policy is to compensate for differences between Member States, another important role of cohesion policy is to compensate for differences within Member States. Today, there are Member States in the European Union where the differe…

13

Mar

2024

FI Answer

Watch

This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Finland, Petteri Orpo (debate)

I did not quite hear the first part of the question, but I realised that the essence of the question is, however, how the common agricultural policy should be reformed so that farmers throughout the European Union have the same conditions. That is an important question and, in my opinion, it certainly does not happen today. The CAP does not reflect the reality of farming conditions across Europe. …

13

Mar

2024

FI Speech

Watch

This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Finland, Petteri Orpo (debate)

Mr President, Prime Minister, the fundamental pillar of the EU is a fair internal market. They are particularly important for exports to a living country, such as Finland. Fairness means that companies compete in the internal market genuinely and the most competitive ones win. It guarantees productivity and growth for the EU as a whole. The €4 trillion derogations from State aid rules granted by t…

28

Feb

2024

FI Speech

Watch

Regaining our competitive edge - a prosperous EU in a fragmented global economy (topical debate)

Mr President, productivity, competitiveness and growth. Behind all these words lies expertise and innovation. In Europe, investing only in innovation has not lived up to the hopes and ambitions we have set ourselves. Many other countries, our competitors, have passed by. When we move around 2%, China, the United States and many countries move between 3% and 5%. For us, both private and public inve…

27

Feb

2024

FI Speech

Watch

Unitary supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products - Unitary supplementary certificate for medicinal products - Supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products (recast) - Supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products (recast) - Standard essential patents (joint debate - Patents)

Mr President, SEPs are not just any patent. They protect technology that is important for standards. There are not many companies in Europe that can do this. Overall, there are very few companies in Europe that can compete in patent competition with the rest of the world. We have a few of them. Among the top 50, there are a few Europeans: Nokia, Ericsson and a few others. We have a few of them. Ho…

26

Feb

2024

FI Speech

Watch

European Central Bank – annual report 2023 (debate)

Mr President, thank you to the Director-General for his good speech. However, I would be interested to hear your assessment of the impact of the multi-billion euro purchase programme, which is piling up in the ECB's balance sheets and which, I understand, has already been dismantled for several billion euros. What is the impact on price stability and interest rates of this exceptional measure, the…

8

Feb

2024

FI Speech

Watch

Multilateral negotiations in view of the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, 26-29 February 2024 (debate)

Mr President, even though State aid is not on the agenda for the meeting, I was expecting the Commissioner to have said a word about State aid, which I think is a topical issue. I therefore expected that our common EU internal market would allow state aid exemptions totalling thousands of billions of euros. It undermines a fair internal market. It's easy to say that's what China and the United Sta…

5

Feb

2024

FI Speech

Watch

State of EU solar industry in light of unfair competition (debate)

Mr President, a 600 gigawatt power target for solar power in the EU is possible and good. But with whose technology will the Chinese offer cheaper and faster? The European industry is closing factories today. We are faced with a difficult choice. If it can be shown that China's actions are indisputably in breach of WTO rules, import barriers could be justified. But do they work, too, those import …

21

Nov

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Recent developments at the EU’s external border between Finland and Russia and the need to uphold EU law (debate)

Mr President, I am delighted that there is strong support here for Finland's actions on the eastern border. As Finland's former Minister of the Interior responsible for borders, I am confident that the Finnish Government and Parliament will continue to handle this matter in a correct and responsible manner. Finland's eastern border is also the EU's eastern border with Russia. I therefore hope that…

20

Nov

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Framework of measures for strengthening Europe’s net-zero technology products manufacturing ecosystem (Net Zero Industry Act) (debate)

Mr President, the EU has ambitious climate targets, but we are not currently advancing the green transition in technologies and production as we should. Since 2020, the Commission has granted state aid exemptions amounting to thousands of billions of euros. Much of this aid has been poisonous for a fair internal market. They have gone far beyond net-zero projects. Now this net-zero law defines sec…

17

Oct

2023

FI Speech

Watch

General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2024 - all sections (debate)

Mr President, the report stresses that a well-functioning internal market is crucial for the competitiveness of the EU and, in particular, for SMEs. Exactly like this. However, the thousands of billions of euros allowed by the Commission to derogate from State aid rules have seriously violated this principle. Exemptions need to be closed and the new rules need to target only critical strategic sec…

16

Oct

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Establishing the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (‘STEP’) (debate)

Mr President, underpinning STEP is the EU's concern that we are at risk of falling behind China, the United States and, a little more, other countries, especially in strategic and critical technologies. Our challengers put a lot of effort into these issues. The EU also spent a lot of money on supporting businesses by opening up state aid regulations. Many countries used these opportunities to an u…

3

Oct

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Question Time with Commissioners – EU-China trade relations

Mr President, Commissioner Dombrovskis was pleased that you visited China. I think your attitude on your journey was the right one. A full-blown collision between the European Union and China is not good. I agree with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, she said the same thing. A collision with China is not good for America, nor for the European Union. When Mr von der Leyen spoke here about the …

3

Oct

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Interim report on the proposal for a mid-term revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 (debate)

Mr President, war is a great tragedy. Ukraine needs to be helped, but the war will also have a major economic impact on those provinces that are on the Russian border. Finland has 1,340 kilometres of common border. We have many provinces for which cooperation with Russia in previous situations was important. The number of border crossings alone peaked at around 14 million per year. You can guess w…

13

Sep

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials (debate)

Mr President, this report is a good one. Energy dependence on Russia taught us. The damage was huge. However, to this day, this year, 10 billion euros of Putin's energy will still be imported into Europe. We must not repeat this same mistake when it comes to critical raw materials. What's more, we don't even have the moral and ethical right to rely on China and Chinese friends around the world for…

11

Sep

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Renewable Energy Directive (debate)

Mr President, 42.5% is not a matter of pride. The Commission offers us Finns 60%. At the same time, it provides some other countries with 20-30%. The same applies to the reduction of emissions. We are being offered a 50% reduction in emissions, while others are being offered 20-30%. That should not have been the case, Commissioner. At the same time, we are subject to the greatest obligations in te…

11

Jul

2023

FI Speech

Watch

European Chips Act (debate)

Mr President, Europe slept in the semiconductor sector for a long time, with Taiwan and Korea, among others, passing by. We in the EU need radically better performance in all parts of the value chain, in education, research, innovation and production. It responds quite well to these challenges. I support it and thank everyone involved in it. However, my concern is about the EU State aid frameworks…

14

Jun

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Make Europe the place to invest (debate)

Mr President, when Covid arrived, the Commission began to recklessly ease the rules on State aid. Countries have applied for €3,500 billion in exemptions. The Commission has granted them, and more than 1 000 billion of this money has been earmarked for projects of any kind. This money, which governments have spent as state aid, would certainly have been needed to finance knowledge, technology and …

9

May

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact (debate)

Mr President, we have been living in exceptional times, which is why there has been no need to comply with fiscal rules. Freedoms have been exercised, debt has been lived on and risks have increased. If the camel's back is broken in one country, everyone will be paying. Reforming the rules is urgent. The Commission now considers that there is room for easing the criteria. This is illustrated by ma…

20

Apr

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Cohesion dimension of EU state aid and de minimis rules (debate)

Mr President, Putin's brutal war has caused immense suffering and destruction in Ukraine. The burdens of the war extend to Ukraine's neighbours, and they must also be helped. But the effects of the war are also known in Russia's neighbouring countries and their border counties. Finland and Russia share a border of 1,344 kilometres. Before the border was closed, many of our border counties had a gr…

18

Apr

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Energy storage (debate)

Mr President, energy consumption is increasingly turning into electricity consumption. At the same time, fortunately, Europe is producing more and more renewable electricity from wind and sun. These forms of production are highly volatile: There are times when there is much, there are times when there is much less. In this situation, we need the development of electricity storage, the technologies…

17

Apr

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System - Monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transport - Carbon border adjustment mechanism - Social Climate Fund - Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System for aviation (debate)

Mr President, the new ETS is the EU's main instrument for reducing emissions and climate action in general. I was the negotiator for the Committee on Industry, Public Health and Consumer Policy, which is why I have a few comments here. The reform will double the current ETS emissions reduction rate, i.e. from 2005 to 2030 by -62%. It rewards clean solutions. It sends a clear message to industry an…

17

Apr

2023

FI Speech

Watch

Deforestation Regulation (debate)

Mr President, this regulation is a good example of how good objectives and good intentions can be undermined by the fact that the regulation is written in a way that can lead to the interpretations that have been said here. It is interpreted that, for example, if a farmer builds a barn, then the trees felled under that barn would be something that would not meet the requirements of this bill. I th…