EU elections: Little enthusiasm in Finland for joint EU army

National Coalition Party candidates support NATO, Left Alliance opposed

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If Finnish politicians and citizens could decide, the defence of the member-states of the European Union would continue to be dealt with as it has in the past, and plans for developing a common EU defence would be shelved.
      Nearly half of both voters and candidates in the European Parliament elections feel this way.
      The greatest support for the status quo appears to be with candidates of the Social Democratic Party, the Greens, and the Centre Party.
      “Now we need clearer security guarantees among the member-states of the EU, but these could be created within the framework of current national systems without the EU’s own army”, says Tarja Cronberg (Green) in her response on the Helsingin Sanomat candidate selection engine.
      “There is no reason to move fast in any direction”, says Fredrik Almqvist (SDP), summing up the feelings of Social Democratic candidates.
     
Information on the views on EU defence of the public at large are from a poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup, and and views of the candidates for the European Parliament are from answers that they gave to the questions put to them for the Helsingin Sanomat online candidate selection engine.
      The two sets of answers are not quite commensurable, as the European Parliament candidates were also asked to take a stand on the assertion that “A joint EU army should be established alongside national armies”.
      Also, unlike ordinary citizens responding to the poll, the candidates taking part in the search engine questionnaire did not have the option of answering “I don’t know”.
     
Few were excited about the idea of an EU army that would replace national defence forces.
      Eight per cent of voters and just 0.5 per cent of candidates supported the idea.
      More passionate feelings came from the issue of NATO.
      No fewer than 80 per cent of candidates of the National Coalition Party felt that the EU’s common defence should be developed in cooperation with NATO.
      “Nobody wants conflicts, but it would be safer to have bigger shoulders”, writes Anne Linnonmaa (Nat. Coalition Party).
     
The most suspicious about NATO defence cooperation among the Finnish Parliamentary parties was the Left Alliance. Half of the party’s candidates in the European elections want to reduce the present level of cooperation.
      “The EU’s military dimension only serves large member-states who have grown accustomed to aggressive policies promoting their interests, and who want to use military power in the name of the whole EU”, writes Anna Mikkola (Left Alliance).
      The public at large are not very interested in reducing defence cooperation, as only four per cent of respondents supported this option.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  European Parliament elections: Sharp divergence between voters and candidates on common taxation (26.5.2009)
  Poll suggests lower turnout in prospect for European Parliament elections than in 2004 (25.5.2009)

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