Prime Minister Sanna Marin put up a spirited defence of the 750-billion-euro defence of the EU recovery fund negotiated by member states earlier this week while speaking to reporters on Wednesday.
During a press conference at her official residence Kesäranta, Marin said that Finland achieved its objective in the marathon four-day talks by negotiating a package that was more evenly balanced between grant and loan funding.
She added that provisions to ensure that each member state would be responsible for its share of the loan to be taken to finance the entire package, as well as a separate condition to tie payouts to democratic values and the rule of law were also written into the final agreement.
"I can stand tall and say that we did well in the negotiations," Marin told journalists.
The contours of the final recovery package moved closer to Finland’s goal of reducing the proportion of grant money in relation to debt in the mechanism. The European Council’s original position was a package containing 500 billion euros in grants and 250 billion in debt. In the end EU leaders settled on 390 billion in grants and 360 billion in debt, closer to the 50-50 compromise Finland said it could accept.
Member states also agreed on a trillion-euro multi-year framework budget. Yle News asked the PM if the deal, which will see the EU take on joint debt to finance the package has changed the EU for good.
"Finland thinks and feels -- and we are sure -- that this is a one-off. So this is a package addressing the coronavirus crisis and the economic crisis that it has caused. So this is a one-off package, it hasn't changed the whole of Europe," Marin said.
PM: "I'm not such a soft negotiator"
Journalists asked Marin to comment on reports in the UK’s Financial Times newspaper (€), which claimed that EU leaders feared the talks would run aground when Marin challenged Spanish premier Pedro Sánchez for suggesting that Finland and the so-called 'Frugal Four' -- Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden -- could relax their position on a lower proportion of grant funding.
"I responded quite directly that if the other side didn’t meet us halfway, we wouldn’t reach an agreement," she told reporters.
"Perhaps I’m not as soft a negotiator as some comments have suggested," she added.
The Frugal Four successfully negotiated rebates on their contributions to the EU budget, however Marin said that Finland had different goals.
"Finland has not sought rebates in the past either because we have calculated that it would be more beneficial for us to get a national package than a rebate," Marin explained.
The PM said that Finland was able to secure 500 million euros: 400 million for rural development and for the first time, 100 million euros for sparsely populated areas in northern and eastern Finland. She added that it was hardly likely than Finland would have received 500 million euros in rebates.
"During the final night I was able to increase this amount by 250 million euros. It must have been around 1.30am when it was confirmed that we would get it," she added, according to daily Helsingin Sanomat.
Criticism from opposition parties
Opposition National Coalition Party (NCP) chair Petteri Orpo said that despite the size of the package, it is not clear that it will help Europe recover from the crisis. He added that Finland should have aligned itself more closely with the Frugal Four -- Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, who were reportedly able to negotiate a reduction in their membership contributions.
However Finland was able to check the box on its goal of ensuring development funding and regional development funding for northern and eastern Finland.
Meanwhile Finns Party chair Jussi Halla-aho said that there was nothing to benefit Finland in the recovery fund.
"I think that now, countries that have run their economies more responsibly are financing other countries that have long-term problems due to poor economic management," he told Yle.