Finnish Members of the European Parliament have been engaged in an unusual dispute over whether or not the European Union should adhere to the so-called Northern Dimension programme, or if it should be replaced by a broader Baltic Sea strategy.
On Tuesday, Alexander Stubb and Eija-Riitta Korhola of Finland’s National Coalition Party called on the other Finns to "wake up to the fact" that the Northern Dimension promoted by Finland has never caught wind.
"With the help of the Baltic Sea strategy we want to revive the project which is in trouble, and to find a form with which we can sell it", Korhola told journalists.
Sharply critical of the proposal were Finnish Social Democratic Euro-Parliamentarians, as well as Centre Party MEP Paavo Väyrynen.
"We will not give up the Northern Dimension. Now that Russia has also accepted the principle, it would be doubly harmful if the Finns were to go away", said Reino Paasilinna (SDP).
The dispute has continued for a few weeks now. Paasilinna, who has been in the European Parliament since 1996, said that he does not remember a time when Finnish MEPs would be in such sharp disagreement with each other.
