European Interest

Finland’s Greens get to work

Flickr/OSCE Parliamentary Assembly/CC BY-SA 2.0
“We want to show that these elections are an opportunity to choose a new direction for Finland,” said Pekka Haavisto, the chairperson of the Green League.

Looks like Finland’s Greens are gearing up for the country’s next parliamentary elections slated for April 14. And they’re buzzwords are employment and productivity.

For instance, in their newly unveiled programme, the party backs measures to “facilitate access to working life and promote security so that there is room for more, rather than fewer, people in working life”.

As reported by The Helsinki Times, the Green League warned that a shortage of skilled workers has already begun to hinder the recruitment efforts of businesses. Investments in education and research, it proposed, are the best way to ensure employment and productivity will continue to increase in the coming decades.

The party also announced its willingness to increase employment-based immigration by, for example, abolishing the so-called labour availability consideration process, expediting the processing of employment permit applications and facilitating the recognition of qualifications acquired overseas.

“Many Finns believe there has been enough of the growing poverty and deprivation, deteriorating education, disregard towards the fight against climate change, erosion of biodiversity, and disregard towards elderly people and people in need of help,” said Pekka Haavisto, the chairperson of the Green League.

“We want to show that these elections are an opportunity to choose a new direction for Finland,” he added.

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