Finland proposes changes to EU recovery package

The government on Thursday published a list of what it considers essential changes to the European Commission's proposed package for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, reported news agency Xinhua.

Finland hopes that solutions can be found to reduce the relative share of direct "support type of assistance" in the package. Finland had told the European Union (EU) earlier that it prefers a system based on loans but is prepared to review other solutions as well.

The government said that the overall size of the EU recovery tool should be smaller and proportionate to the subsequent payment obligations and their duration. It also underlined that the proposed package should be subjected to a public debate both domestically and in Europe. It emphasized that broad "civic backing" is required to make the scheme legitimate.

Finland also insists that the maturity of the package should be cut from the proposed 30 years and that the budget sovereignty of the EU member states should be restricted for the briefest possible period only. Furthermore, the validity of the recovery tool should be cut shorter than the four years proposed by the European Commission.

The government said it appreciated that the proposed recovery tool had green strings attached.

The government has forwarded its negotiating position to the Finnish parliament, which is scheduled to review it on Friday.