A Memorable Visit to the European Parliament

Interviewer: Zara Usmani

Rosa Svahn is a first year Master’s Degree student at Hanken. Having lived and worked in many different places within Finland and abroad, Rosa feels passionate about bringing Finland at the forefront of international arena. She is an active member of the youth of the National Coalition Party (Kokoomusnuoret). In October the party sent her on an educational trip to the grand halls of the European parliament. Hankeiten met with Rosa to find more about her membership in the party and her experience and learnings from the visit.

Hankeiten: As someone pursuing a business degree and working alongside, how did you come to join the National Coalition Party?

Rosa Svahn: I joined the Youth of the national Coalition Party this year in January so basically 10 months ago. I had considered joining the party for many years, but delayed it because I felt that I didn’t have enough knowledge about politics and on top of that I lived abroad so I had no idea if I could be a part of the party while living outside Finland. Now I have learned that anybody who is between the ages of 16-30 can join us, and there are even some incoming exchange students who have joined our party! I am very glad that I finally gathered the courage to join and I do wish that I had joined earlier, since next year will be my final year in the youth wing.

Hankeiten: What inspired you to go and visit the European Parliament and what was the trip all about?

Rosa Svahn: The youth of the national coalition party offers a variety of activities from very informal hang outs to international opportunities. Every year they organize “a study tour” called Eurooppa-akatemia. Eurooppa-akatemia aims to expand young people's knowledge of the EU.

I was fortunate to participate Eurooppa-akatemia this year, and it was a truly eye-opening experience for me. I must confess that my knowledge of the EU was very minimum. The academy was organized in two parts: (i) a weekend in Helsinki where we got familiarized with the EU by people who have been involved with the institutions in EU (ii) a trip to Brussels where we got the chance to visit the European Parliament, European Commission and NATO. We also participated in some panel debates on topics such as climate change, youth and economy.

Hankeiten: Not many people in Finland know much about the European Parliament. Can you give us a brief overview of what the parliament does especially for students and how it works?

Rosa Svahn: European Parliament represents citizens of the EU countries. Some of its recent achievements include ending barriers to cross-border online shopping in Europe, opening up the online payments market to reduce fees and fraud risks, and the ban on throwaway plastics by 2021 among many other decisions. The parliament election is held every 5 years. The latest election was held last spring. The current Parliament has 751 representatives called Members of the European Parliament or MEPs. The MEPs are organized in political groups which represent right, left, centrists or greens and are not based on nationalities.

During the Brussels trip we were guests of the Finnish politician Sirpa Pietikäinen who is an elected member of European People’s Party or EPP, which is the largest political group in the European Parliament. Parliament passes the EU laws with the European Council. Hankeiten: Tell us more about the European Council.

Hankeiten: Tell us more about the European Council.

The European Council includes ministers from all the 27 member states. The Council can be considered the government of Europe and gives regulations, directives and decisions. Every member state holds the presidency of the Council for six months. Currently Finland is holding it. I did not get a chance to visit the Council, however the Council had a meeting during our visit, where Brexit was one of the agendas.

Hankeiten: Besides the European Parliament which other places did you visit?

Rosa Svahn: Besides the parliament, we visited the European Commission. Members of the Commission are called the Commissioners who are proposed by the European Council. Every EU state has a Commissioner, who is responsible for certain aspects of the EU politics. We visited Jyrki Katainen’s cabinet, and heard about his teams’ experiences. Katainen was part of the 2014-2019 Commission, and his responsibility had been jobs, growth, investments and competitiveness. The Commission prepares legislative bills and makes proposals for the budget of the EU.

Hankeiten: What was the absolute highlight of your visit?

Rosa Svahn: I personally found it very interesting to hear more about how the EU institutions operate. Also, it was very helpful to actually see the places in Brussels which helped me understand the distinctions of the different bodies. The absolute highlight of the trip was to meet Sirpa Pietikäinen and hear about her daily work and to see her passion for making a difference! Pietikäinen hosted several events for us where she told us about her recent work like the ‘sustainable finance model.’

Hankeiten: What was your key takeaway from the trip and do you have any message for our readers?

Rosa Svahn: This trip made me realize that important decisions affecting my everyday life are taken in the EU parliament and yet there was very little I knew about it! For me at least, EU was nothing short of this obscure distant “thing” and I didn’t know how different institutions worked. Finland is such a small country and alone it is very hard to make an impact without getting involved in the mainstream politics. I encourage everybody to learn more about the EU and also vote! Obviously, the election was last spring, so it will be a little less than 5 years until the next elections but meanwhile there are many other ways to get involved. For example, joining some national political party or the Eurooppanuoret. There are many ways to broaden one's knowledge about the EU, and in my opinion joining a political youth party is one of the easiest ways to get involved. If you are passionate about politics, there are also many different intern and job opportunities in the EU as well. All you need to do is just motivate yourself and do a bit of research.