What Katri spoke about.

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FI Written Statement

Circularity requirements for vehicle design and management of end-of-life vehicles (debate)

The aim of the proposal to strengthen the circular economy and the self-sufficiency of the European automotive industry is the right one. In Parliament's reading, the Commission's proposal has been made more realistic. There are now too many cars disappearing from registers to third countries instead of getting our precious minerals into circulation and reuse in Europe. However, the implementation…

16 Sep

2026

EN Speech

Stop gold-plating, relieve SMEs: Member States must implement EU legislation without adding extra bureaucracy (topical debate)

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Madam President, especially today, blaming the EU seems to be quite fashionable, and I must admit that I also quite often do that. But if one puts aside the bad mood, and the populism heard, especially in the morning, it has not been a failure to agree, for example, about the inner market. Obviously, nothing is perfect that's been made by people, but it is not a minor thing to have a 100 million i…

9 Jul

2026

FI Speech

Joint communication on humanitarian aid (JOIN(2026)0025) (B10-0339/2026)

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Mr President, the world must be taken as it is. Indeed, we here in Europe may not always fully remember the difficult circumstances in which many people in the world are forced to build and survive their lives day after day. So I voted in favour of Amendment No 13 because Christians, especially those who convert to Christianity, are the most persecuted religious groups in the world and perhaps we …

9 Jul

2026

FI Speech

Evaluation of the Common Fisheries Policy and follow-up (debate)

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Mr President, as the northernmost parliamentarian of the European Union, I now send you my greetings from the spawning river of Atlantic wild salmon. This is really critical. I have grown up along the Tornio River, Europe's largest salmon river, and I do not underestimate any point of view from the fishing industry or professional fishermen, but salmon stocks are at such an alarming level that if …

8 Jul

2026

EN Speech

Harnessing the potential of a competitive and sustainable EU Bioeconomy Strategy for EU strategic autonomy (debate)

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Mr President, for decades, Finland has championed the bioeconomy. Our economy is heavily based on that, but the bioeconomy is also so much more. Bioeconomy is an answer for several wicked problems of our time. The bioeconomy is not just wood, it is how to replace fossil-based solutions that we eventually need to get rid of with renewable local solutions based on bioeconomy and largely, yes, on woo…

7 Jul

2026

FI Speech

Urgent measures to strengthen the competitiveness and safeguard quality jobs in the EU’s automotive sector (debate)

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Mr President, I understand that the automotive industry is a key economic sector in many European countries and employs around 13 million people on this continent. It is clear that if we are talking about strategic autonomy, then industry is at the heart of it, both in the automotive sector and in the rest of the industry. At the same time, of course, the great debates about taking action to comba…

18 Jun

2026

FI Speech

Circularity requirements for vehicle design and management of end-of-life vehicles (debate)

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16 Jun

2026

EN Speech

An EU future for the Western Balkans (joint debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, the history of the Balkans is well read across the Europe. Hopefully, the years to come will show how the Balkans region, in all its diversity and uniqueness, will be a stable part of Europe. The development of the Balkans secures, for its part, the peace of the entire continent. Especially in the current geopolitical situation, EU enlargement also has a security …

20 May

2026

EN Speech

Reviewing the ETS system to support European competitiveness (topical debate)

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Madam President, Finland did an energy taxation reform already in the 90s before the EU membership and divided energy taxation into CO2 emission and energy content. This enabled energy policies, at the same time, to cut emissions and increase the share of domestic renewable energy. If the energy is local, so is the positive employment effect. I understand that the shift from the local coal product…

19 May

2026

FI Speech

Europe's response to reduced US military deployments in Europe, particularly at its Eastern flank in the light of the latest US decisions (debate)

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Mr President, last weekend Finland celebrated the Day of Remembrance of the Fallen. We know the price of freedom and independence. It's immeasurable. Each EU member state is responsible for the future and security of the Union. Eastern borders and anyone who sees what is happening with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine know that striving to get rid of strategic dependencies is the foundat…

12 Mar

2026

EN Speech

Rail transport safety in the EU – lessons learnt from the Adamuz accident and three years after the Tempi tragedy (debate)

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Madam President, it is highly important to talk about rail safety in Europe and hopefully now lessons have really been learned from these horrible tragedies. Europe is very well connected with cross-border railways, especially while looking from my perspective, from the High North. Finland only has one electrified railway to Western Europe, now to Sweden. This obviously should have been done years…

11 Mar

2026

FI Speech

Building Europe's clean, independent and secure energy following the 2026 North Sea Summit (debate)

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10 Mar

2026

EN Speech

Cutting red tape to enable a competitive and clean transition – the urgent need to shorten and simplify permitting (debate)

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Mr President, the EU is trying to improve its competitiveness, while at the same time many of its investments are on hold. The electricity grid lacks capacity, and industrial projects are stuck waiting in a permit maze. Permit processes must be accelerated. One problem keeps recurring: long waiting times. Months and sometimes even years pass while authorities process permits and courts handle appe…

12 Feb

2026

FI Speech

Cooperation among enforcement authorities regarding unfair trading practices in the agri-food supply chain (debate)

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22 Jan

2026

FI Speech

Drones and new systems of warfare – the EU’s need to adapt to be fit for today’s security challenges (debate)

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Mr President, acknowledging the fact is that every Member State must be prepared to make hybrid contributions or to violate sovereignty, including with regard to drone attacks. Of course, a special role is played by the EU's border with Russia, which Finland also has 1,343 kilometres to defend. Europe needs to overcome its dependencies in all areas. As far as drone operations are concerned, we are…

22 Oct

2025

FI Speech

Ending all energy imports from Russia to the EU and closing loopholes through third countries (debate)

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Mr President, last year, Russian gas was purchased in the European Union for a total of around EUR 15 billion, according to Eurostat. This money has gone to Russia's fossil energy and to support their war economy. Europe has reduced Russian gas and oil compared to the baseline situation before the war in Ukraine, but until a few years ago it was from Russia that the most oil and natural gas came h…

22 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Key objectives for the CITES COP20 meeting in Uzbekistan (debate)

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Mr President, a century ago, even Finnish newspapers advertised ivory luxury items. The world has changed indeed, and a more effective ban on ivory trade and all other measures to prevent illegal wildlife trade deserve our support. The importance of the issue is emphasised by the fact that this Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, is indeed the largest g…

8 Oct

2025

FI Speech

The role of simple tax rules and tax fragmentation in European competitiveness (debate)

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Mr President, there are 32 million SMEs in Europe, i.e. about 99% of all businesses in the European Union. Tax rules and tax fragmentation, of course, have an impact on the business environment and European competitiveness, but at the same time taxation is largely a national competence and must continue to be so. However, it is of paramount importance that tax rules are simplified and that regulat…

7 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Rising antisemitism in Europe (debate)

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Mr President, one may ask why antisemitism needs to be addressed separately, not just as part of other forms of racism. However, the history of antisemitism is unique. It rises repeatedly, during different eras, among different cultures and religions. After the Holocaust, Europeans said: 'never again'. But once again, Jewish people are afraid for their safety. Synagogue-guarding has had to be incr…

10 Sep

2025

FI Speech

Taxation of large digital platforms in the light of international developments (debate)

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Mr President, the taxation of large digital platforms is being developed internationally to match the growth of the large digital economy. The aim here is to find ways to tax the activities of companies that would be located in countries where they do not have a physical presence. The OECD and the G20 are working to establish tax standards for digital businesses and to ensure that they pay appropr…

8 Jul

2025

FI Speech

Presentation of the Chemicals Package (debate)

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Mr President, the chemical industry is a sector of great strategic importance. At the moment, however, the situation in our legislation is that companies that comply with strict chemicals legislation do not necessarily always get the commercial benefit that the legislator had planned, and those companies that do not comply with this legislation and run past the system, i.e. which the authorities c…

18 Jun

2025

FI Speech

Digital Markets, Digital Euro, Digital Identities: economical stimuli or trends toward dystopia (topical debate)

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Mr President, there are 350 million payment cards in use in the euro area. They make more than 12 billion payments and 6 billion cash withdrawals per year. 13 of the 20 euro area countries use only international schemes for card payments. Although there is at least one national payment card scheme in each euro area country, cards can only be used outside the country of issuance if they are combine…

21 May

2025

EN Speech

Amending Regulation (EU) 2023/956 as regards simplifying and strengthening the carbon border adjustment mechanism (debate)

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Mr President, the simplification of CBAM is a welcome example of a concrete legislative simplification, putting things into perspective and safeguarding the EU's competitiveness, while at the same time 99 % of the climate action remains protected, so this is a balanced and a welcomed proposal. However, for the future to come, while the Commissioner is also here, I have two concerns. Free emission …

6 May

2025

FI Speech

A revamped long-term budget for the Union in a changing world (debate)

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Mr President, the next multiannual financial framework is, of course, difficult to negotiate, as always. The biggest expenditure items in the future budget will undoubtedly be both agriculture and regional development. There are many spending needs – defence, security, green digital transition, research, innovation – to name but a few. What I am concerned about, on the other hand, is the issue of …

2 Apr

2025

FI Speech

Energy-intensive industries (debate)

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Mr President, many here have criticised the high energy prices across Europe. Of course, this is sometimes quite correct criticism when it comes to the price of fossil energy. But when it comes to electricity, we have the two northernmost Member States in the Union, Finland and Sweden, which have succeeded in making the price of electricity under an almost carbon-neutral electricity system, which …