Finland’s Parliament to Debate Euro Exit Soon

• 03.11.2016, 19:27
•  Europe,  World

thefinancetimes.co.uk

Finnish parliament will debate in the coming weeks whether the country should quit the euro zone, following a petition on the issue signed by more than the required 50,000 citizens.

The debate is very unlikely to lead to Finland's exit from the common currency but the decision to hold such a debate demonstrates a high level of dissatisfaction among Finns with their country's economic performance.

The petition, signed by more than 53,000 people, demands a referendum on leaving the euro, Reuters writes.

The citizen's petition was proposed by Paavo Vayrynen, 69, a long serving minister in previous governments.

But it is not supported by any party in parliament, including Vayrynen's Centre Party or the eurosceptic Finns Party, both of which are part of the governing coalition.

"We should revive our economy by leaving the euro zone and reinstating our own currency. This will restore our competitiveness," he said as he handed the petition to Maria Lohela, the speaker of parliament.

The matter is that the Finnish economy grew by just 0.4 percent last year after three years of contraction, hit by high labor costs, the decline of Nokia's former phone business and a recession in neighboring Russia.

The center-right government is struggling to balance public finances and improve export competitiveness through 'internal devaluation', including cuts to workers' benefits, amid opposition from unions.

However, a poll commissioned by the public broadcaster YLE in December showed that 31 percent of all respondents favor a Finnish euro exit. Four years ago only a fifth supported the idea of leaving the single currency, The Global Post reports.

EU skepticism is rising year by year. In June Britain is voting on whether to leave the European Union. Such talks on leaving the Union and the euro zone had been also held in Greece last year. So now, after the infamous "Grexit" and "Brexit" talks, we already have a kind of "Fixit" talks, a new term that started to be used on media in the recent days.