“This has to change. We’ve informed that Finland won’t be participating in the next EU meetings unless Hungary changes its stance,” she was quoted saying during an online press conference by YLE.
The Associated Press on Tuesday reported that top EU officials will boycott informal meetings hosted by Hungary over Hungarian President Victor Orbán’s series of “rogue meetings” over Ukraine with the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Purra on Tuesday also said she is pleased that Finland has avoided the excessive deficit procedure of the EU. It is too early, however, to let out a sigh of relief, she stressed according to the public broadcasting company.
“This doesn’t mean that the danger is over. The commission remarked in its report in June that it’ll examine Finland’s situation again in the autumn,” she reminded.
Finland, she underlined, has to stick to the spending cuts and fiscal adjustments agreed on in the government programme and the framework session. They alone will not be enough, though, but the country has to also find means to spur economic growth.
“If we didn’t make these decisions, I wonder what the situation would be now. The key for Finland is that all EU countries commit to strengthening their public economy. In a moronically realist way you could say, ‘I believe it when I see it’,” said Purra.
Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Romania and Poland were formally entered into the excessive deficit procedure at the meeting in Brussels.
A member state can trigger the procedure if its central government budget shows a deficit of over 3 per cent or its debt burden is over 60 per cent of gross domestic product. The European Commission will instruct countries entered into the procedure over measures and the timetable for adjusting their finances, allowing the countries themselves to define how the adjustments are carried out.
Last year, over half of the 27 member states infringed on the deficit rule as deviations from rules laid down in the growth and stability pact were tolerated due to the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic and war in Ukraine.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
