The Politics of Differentiated Integration: What do Governments Want? Country Report – Finland

Abstract

The results show that differentiated integration (DI) is a very low-salience issue in Finland. It has mainly appeared in parliamentary debates but almost never in government programmes, Prime Minister (PM) speeches or European Council statements. The salience of DI models has been highest during a few specific debates in the parliament. In general, Finnish politicians emphasised that the optimal solution in European integration would be to have all states on board but differentiated integration can be an option in order to move forward in certain fields. Finland has wanted to remain in core Europe and participate in all significant integration projects, including most forms of differentiated integration. During the period analysed since 2004, participation in the Prum Convention and Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) seem to be the only DI instances that some politicians opposed. Usually, it has seemed self-evident that Finland is involved in new initiatives. In the case of PESCO, the Finnish government even took some credit for the launch of cooperation.