Speeches

Mr President, the debate on EU enlargement has intensified as a result of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. I am in favour of the candidate countries heading west. EU countries and the international community must stand in support of Ukraine until Russian troops are evicted from Ukrainian territory. Russia must also withdraw from the occupied territories of Georgia and Moldova. I myself have reservations about the too rapid enlargement of the EU. Enlargement will put additional pressure on the membership fees of net contributors such as Finland. The accession of new Member States may further complicate EU decision-making. I believe that the candidate countries must meet all the criteria before we can talk about EU membership. This will require many economic and political reforms.

Mr President, the EU and many of its Member States are in debt in a worrying way. Last year, the EU's debt increased by more than EUR 100 billion, reaching EUR 344 billion at the end of the year. The auditors' annual report is a worrying read. There was a significant increase in errors in EU budget expenditure. The total risk to the EU budget at the end of the year was close to EUR 250 billion. When will the house of cards collapse? The use of taxpayers' money must be accurate. How will these funds be used? In Italy, for example, a farmer received EU support for maintaining lemon trees. Agricultural subsidies ran even though no lemon trees grew in the area. Unsurprisingly, the national authorities did not notice this minor fact. It is important that every euro that is channelled through the EU budget is used transparently and efficiently. The EU should focus on its core tasks and cut unnecessary spending. We also need better control over the use of funds.

Mr President, media independence and pluralism are important objectives. In festive speeches, everything seems to be going smoothly, and democracy is flourishing in several EU countries where the media is said to be independent. However, reality may differ much more than we think. And now I'm talking especially about my home country, which is the media world I know best. In Finland, I have encountered situations where media independence is directly influenced by ownership. In particular, media owners who are themselves active in politics or supporters of politicians can easily influence positive publicity and, at the same time, election success for themselves and for those who promote their own businesses. This also makes the business better. Of course, there is a risk that sooner or later there will be credibility problems. That is why I attach great importance to the objective of achieving greater transparency in media ownership.

Mr President, clean surface water and groundwater are a valuable resource that we must protect. I believe it is essential that companies and private operators should take responsibility for the pollution they cause. Environmental crimes should be investigated more across the EU and polluters should be made to pay for the consequences of their actions. Clean water is vital to our health and the environment. Many industries, such as nature tourism, food production and fishing, depend on clean water bodies and clean nature. Therefore, industry, and in particular the mining industry, must comply with strict environmental criteria so that their operations do not cause pollution of water bodies or groundwater. We need to create stricter regulations and improve their enforcement. We need to promote responsible waste management and invest in advanced water treatment technologies. By protecting our water resources, we ensure a cleaner and healthier environment also for future generations.

Mr President, free cheese is only in a rat's trap, according to an old Russian proverb. Since 2014, Russia has secretly diverted hundreds of millions of euros to foreign political parties and candidates in an attempt to influence political content. Apparently, Russia has achieved its goals. An effective way to fight corruption in politics is to make election funding fully transparent. If the donations to the electoral fund exceed 150 euros, the donors should be notified by name to the election funding supervisory authority, which keeps a public register of the candidates' election funding income and expenses. In this case, the representatives of the media would have the opportunity to monitor whose interests the politicians primarily represent in decision-making. Campaign ceilings should also be set for the size of electoral campaigns, so that the temptation to attract large financial flows is not too great.

Mr President, it is important to carefully review the experience of the Pandora Papers and other revelations in order to focus in the future on the most effective and efficient methods in the fight against tax evasion. When the richest people in the world don't want to pay taxes, they can easily find experts who help with tax avoidance. Four large audit firms control almost 90 per cent of the tax advisory market. It is essential for the public interest that experts from these companies are not used as public sector consultants when creating new tax regulations. The ‘revolving door’ phenomenon often shifts from the public sector to the private sector. For example, the former OECD Director of Taxation and former Commissioners have shifted to monetary tasks in the private sector. I do not at all believe that different paid cooling-off periods prevent public interest information from being leaked to companies. Tax avoidance shifts the tax burden from large companies to small companies and to the side of personal taxation. There is a high degree of injustice in tax evasion, which undermines public confidence in the fairness of society. Tax avoidance in the Member States could be effectively prevented if interest, royalties and service charges were made wholly or partly non-deductible for tax purposes. Extending withholding taxes would also be an effective way to raise more tax revenue.