The MC?E News Roundup Episode 3 – Let’s talk about Finland. December 10th, 2019

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Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, and Ireland have voted against new EU rules to force multinationals to reveal how much profit they make and the amount of tax they pay.

These countries are some of the EU’s main offshore banking and tax haven-type countries. Eight other countries, namely Slovenia, Estonia, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, and Sweden, also voted against the measure. The UK has abstained from the vote.

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France’s ex-defence minister Sylvie Goulard has been charged over a fake jobs scandal. The affair largely caused her to be rejected by the European Parliament as an EU commissioner. Goulard was indicted for embezzlement of public funds in employing parliament assistants. Several figures from her MoDem party have already been indicted or are being investigated.

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The EU has unveiled its green new deal during a UN climate change summit in Madrid, promising to simultaneously cut emissions and create jobs.

Under the plan, no economic sector will be exempt from carbon neutrality, in the quest to make Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

The Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the new deal is “Europe’s new growth strategy”, promising emissions reductions, job creation and improving quality of life.

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The European Commission has determined that the Czech Republic must return hundreds of millions of crowns in EU subsidies due to PM Babis’ business conflicts.

Firms in the Agrofert group, the core of Babis’ assets estimated at 3.5 billion US dollars, are among the largest recipients of EU subsidies, both for farming and investment projects.

The original inquiry by the EU is one of the reasons that thousands of citizens of the Czech Republic have been rallying against Babis’ rule this year, with protests of which the magnitude can only be paralleled to the anti-communist rallies 30 years ago.

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Hungary’s Foreign Minister Szijjártó has announced that the country will block Ukraine’s entry in NATO if the language rights of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine are not restored.

Referring to a recent law restricting minority languages, Szijjártó said that “we ask for no extra rights to Hungarians in Transcarpathia, only those rights they had before.”

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Russia said that Western European countries should be involved in talks about a new nuclear arms control treaty with the USA.

The comments echoed those by Macron, who said France should join the talks to replace the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty.

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Bosnia’s parliament has endorsed compromise candidate Tegeltija as the new prime minister, ending 13 months of deadlock.

Tegeltija is a centre-left Serb economist. He has vowed to push ahead with EU and NATO integration, and to resume talks with the IMF.

“It will be our obligation to work with a dedication to catch up on lost time. We must unblock the processes in the government and parliament, adopt the next year’s budget and re-activate frozen investments to spur growth.”, Tegeltija has commented.

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Onto the issue of EU enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, European commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, has said that Europe “should be able to move ahead and correct the mistake that was committed in October”.

Three member states opposed opening accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania. He wants to start accession negotiations with both countries in spring.

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Russia’s president Putin and Ukrainian president Zelensky have agreed to implement a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine by the end of the year.

They also agreed to implement an “all-for-all” prisoner exchange by the new year. The meeting’s aim was to revive the 2015 Minsk peace agreement that has been stalled.

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Human rights abusers around the world will, in future, end up on a common EU blacklist, leading to asset freezes and travel bans.

This new worldwide sanction regime will target individuals, not administrations, and Member States have supported it unanimously.

Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok has commented that “today, the EU unanimously decided to legislate a worldwide EU human rights sanction regime”.

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Our main story of the day, which I really really wanted to talk about, so I’m gonna go into kind of a commentary section here, is about Finland. I decided to leave this for last, because it’s something I decided I wanna delve a bit deeper into – I think it’s important to take a good look at the new prime minister to be, Sanna Marin. She is going to take the position of Antii Rinne, who resigned from the post of prime minister this Saturday. She is going to be sworn in today, December 10th, 2019.

Now of course, states change heads all the time, all around the world, but this one is a bit more special. She comes with a lot of energy, a considerable amount of experience, given her age, and most importantly, she comes bearing a great deal of symbolism. But how is that so?

Well – Sanna Marin, Finland’s ex-transportation minister, and prime minister to be, is a woman. She’s 34 years old, therefore, starting today, she is going to be the youngest head of state in the world. Additionally, she is the child of same sex parents. This is what I mean by symbolism. Your gender does not determine your political skills. Your age does not necessarily determine your maturity to lead, or your experience. It’s worth noting that older political persons, often praised and preferred for their supposed “superior experience”, are often less capable than someone like Sanna Marin, who’s been actively involved in her country’s political scene since her mid-twenties, having passed through several posts like head of city council, minister of Transport and Communications, and now PM. The underlying symbolism comes with the fact that a democratic country has elected as prime minister, an official with the previously mentioned characteristics. It’s easy to talk positively and go on and on about gender equality, about tolerance, about LGBTQ rights and everything, but Finland has taken it one very

important step further: it has placed its trust on someone from this background. It’s not virtue signalling that we need, it’s this kind of legitimization, this kind of validation, the admission into politics, real state politics, of this kind of demographic. I believe that appointing this candidate is an inspiring move, from an inspiring country. Inspiring to Europe, and to the rest of the world.

Now, of course, anyone can say whatever they want about this development, about Finland, about women in politics, etc. Opinions are opinions. But facts are also facts. And the fact is, that among the happiest, and most developed societies in the world, the Scandinavian countries are topping the charts. Another fact is, that in those countries the political spectrum is the most gender balanced compared to the rest of the world. Of course, correlation is not always causation, but some correlations can definitely prove to be food for thought. So these correlations between gender representation in politics, freedom of identity and human happiness and development, should make us all, as europeans, skeptical of our own regions’ politics, how they’re structured, and how they might be better off a bit more similar to Finland’s.