Former Finnish President asked to write report on EU’s defence against Russia

Brussels – Who better than Finland, which shares a 1,340 km border with Russia, can explain to Brussels where to take action to improve Europe’s defence? European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has commissioned former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö to prepare a report on EU defence preparedness, readiness, and tools.

Niinistö, President in Helsinki since 2012 and until March 1, 2024, is also an honorary chairman of the European People’s Party, the same political family as the EU leader. “The Finnish model is a history of experience through the centuries as Russia’s neighbour,” Niinistö acknowledged. It is a history that went from independence from the Soviet Union declared in 1917 to the Winter War in 1939 against the Red Army aggression, until the accession to NATO in April 2023 and Vladimir Putin’s subsequent threat of sending troops and “systems of destruction” to the country’s border.

A history that makes “every Finn defend their country.” To ensure peace, “one must be strong. Those who are strong are not challenged, are not attacked. That’s why Europe must be strong, stronger than it is now,” the former Finnish president prodded the EU in a press statement with von der Leyen in Brussels. The EU leader echoed her: “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has extinguished the illusion that peace is permanent” and that “Europe alone was doing enough on security, whether economic or military, conventional or cyber.” But the war on the EU’s borders has plunged the world back into insecurity, “as dangerous as it has been for generations.”

Von der Leyen highlighted the reasons for his choice: The Finnish people “have learned to live in close proximity to such an unpredictable and aggressive neighbour. And this has deeply shaped your society.” Not only from a military perspective: in Finland, defence “is in fact a matter for the whole society.

” with a comprehensive civil defence strategy so that citizens “can be prepared for all emergencies, including military emergencies, hybrid threats, and natural disasters.”

The report, which will be developed in close cooperation with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, and member states, will take its starting point precisely from this “specific mentality” of a people in which “every part of society is able to help safeguard vital functions in times of crisis, ensure basic supplies for the population and support the defence forces in their duties.”