Talking without guns

Before the euro Finland took care of its competitiveness by repeated devaluations where the workers’ purchasing power was transferred to benefit the industry. – I have a feeling that Timo Soini hankers after the time when such fixing was still possible says Hiski Haukkala.

Peace is the most significant achievement of the EU, says Professor Hiski Haukkala

Hiski Haukkala looks to Europe and Russia and often to the United States. He researches and teaches how world events affect Europe and Finland.

What kind of a relationship does Finland have with Russia?

– We have a more intensive relationship than ever before even though we were a part of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. The difference is that we now have better interaction with Russia.

Professor Haukkala has published a book on the changing geopolitical coordinates of Finland in early 2012 in which he examines the question of Russia and Finland.

– Finnish foreign policy and its changes is one of the empirical issues I want to research, says Haukkala.

Pictures of Lenin, Paasikivi and Kekkonen can be found in the office of this Professor of International Politics and works by Machiavelli, Juri Komissarov and Jari Tervo adorn his bookshelves. In future Hiski Haukkala wants to think more about why and how researchers do the things they do in their own fields of science.

‘A student’ started to rebel

Has the debate around federalism in the EU changed the EU policy in Finland?

– It has changed the Finnish EU policy as the ‘A student’ has started to rebel. This is the biggest effect of the latest developments. However, it is hard to say if Finland has lost prestige. Nobody likes or respects people who say yes to everything either. However, if the only input is to say ‘no’ to all the big issues, in time this turns in on itself too.

The Soviet Union used to be a threat to us. What are the threats now?

– A big threat in the EU is that the whole project unravels. Of course there are uncertainties with Russia and unpredictable risks and the country is so close to us. The stability of Russia is the biggest issue. Is the whole thing going to stay under control?

The EU hung itself on human rights

You have written that the EU talks too much about values and human rights and that this seems almost naïve. Why is that so?

– Everyone says the same and it comes with the territory, so to speak. The EU is so hung up on its own ideals that letting them slip is problematic and diminishes its credibility as an actor in the political arena, Haukkala says.

He takes an example from human rights.

– The EU has decided that it won’t do business with countries that have serious human rights violations and then its most important trading partner is China where thousands of people disappear every year. In the long run this is a quite untenable position. There must be talk about values but then you need to bring your actions up to par too.

What needs to be improved in the EU now?

– The EU should solve its own problems first: the economy, the democratic deficit and its own human rights. You can only start pointing out the errors of others after you have put your own house in order. The log out of your own eye first … isn’t that what the Bible teaches?

You have presented a horror scenario of the world politics changing for example so that Germany and Russia possibly find each other.

– That would be a disaster for us but there is not much fear that it would actually happen. It’s a researcher’s job to think of all the possible ways things can happen and then plant the seed in people’s minds.

Peace - the most significant achievement of the EU

Germany and France have historically had conflicts and fought wars against one another. Are these episodes still an undercurrent in the EU today?

– What is brilliant now is that they no longer battle with weapons but have taken their battles to the backseats of limousines. That is a much more civilized way to conduct foreign affairs.

Haukkala thinks that peace is the most important achievement of the European Union.

– There have been no wars in the EU Member States and many states decided to pack up their guns when they were offered EU membership. If we look at the Balkans, it was only 13 years ago when large numbers of people were killed in Kosovo. Now it is considered a potential candidate for EU membership and it is a much more free and peaceful place. So there must still be some magic left in the integration project.

Is the EU going to become a federation?

– It will either become a federation or if not that then the conclusion must be drawn that some sort of a free trade area is enough. There are different types of federations, too. The Russian Federation is a centralised federation, all the money and power is in Moscow. Germany, and even more so the United States, are federations where certain things are decided centrally but the regions also have a lot of power. I would imagine the European federation as being of the loose kind: some policies would be decided in Brussels but the practical application of the decisions would happen here.

Workers paid for competitiveness in Finland

What do you think of the critique against the EU, especially by the True Finns Party?

– They do have a point. In effect, the euro project has gone massively wrong; this is not how it was supposed to be. The fact that things have happened differently than planned is caused especially by there not being mechanisms to ensure that some people do not ruin or cheat or spoil the whole thing. The conclusion is that we actually need these international structures to ensure that things stay in our control, says Haukkala.

– You can of course ask the True Finns’ party leader Timo Soini if he is ready to pull the plug. You should remember one thing when you are talking about the euro: it has saved Finland from itself. We were not of sound mind practically the whole postwar era. We have not improved our competitiveness by quality and productivity alone but by repeatedly devaluing our currency. When the currency was severely devalued, it meant that the Finnish workers and people paid for the competitiveness of the country. The people’s purchasing power was quite coldly transferred to the Finnish industry.

– Finland is no longer able to continue with the circle of devaluations and this forces us to think about other solutions. We should not blow our own horn too much either. In the historical perspective, we have been as reckless as some other countries are now. We can no longer speculate with the value of our money.

– If we cannot make it in this present system, we might miss the devaluations. The spectacular success of Finland was largely based on the fact that devaluations were used as a rather immoral income transfer system. We have a lower standard of living than many other countries because what money we have had was transferred to benefit the industry. I think that Soini hankers after the time when such fixing was still possible. I am not positive it would be to our advantage.

Professor Hiski Haukkala is one of the lecturers in the science event that will be organised next January http://www.uta.fi/valoa/

This story was originally published in Finnish in Aikalainen 14/2012