Mr. Esko Seppänen, 53, Helsinki

Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left, Member
Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy (ITRE), Member
Committee on Budgets (COBU), Substitute
Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Committee, Member
Delegation to the European Economic Area Joint Parliamentary Committee (EEA), Member
Delegation to the EU-Estonia Joint Parliamentary Committee, Substitute
European Parliament Delegation to the European Convention, Substitute

Esko Seppänen has a Masters Degree from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Adminstration. Before his political career, he worked for the Finnish Broadcasting Company as a journalist specialised in economic affairs. In 1987, he was elected to the Finnish Parliament, and while MP he also served as a Parliamentary Trustee in the Bank of Finland. In Finland's EP elections of autumn 1996, he was an alternative for those who voted "no" to membership in the referendum. Currently as a re-elected MEP, his political interests focus on the relationship between the federalisation process of the European Union and the nation state.

ESKO SEPPÄNEN:

In general terms, I see the EU as a manifestation of global capitalism implemented into a European framework. This capitalism has no social dimension whatsoever, and is acting as an invisible hand in a form of the so called faceless market forces. Moreover, this capitalistic market force mechanism is only following its own rational internal antisocial logic by converging towards highest profits and lowest taxes. And the Eurocracy, the EU's bureaucratic power-centre formed by EU-civilservants is only enforcing this socially perverted neoliberalism by monitoring and preventing the national states to set any obstacles to the freedom of capital movements.


My main arguments against the EU are connected to two interrelated issues: economic and military integration. Economic and Monetary Union, as defined by the convergence criteria in the Maastricht Treaty, does not enable an equal allocation of welfare between different Member States.


I see the deepening of the EU common security and defence policy. This military integration will definitely lead to a common military union, which will in practice be NATO. From Finland's perspective, NATO membership would have negative economic as well as political consequences. Economically, NATO membership would mean increasing our military spending, thus constraining our budget policy freedom even more.


The most important aim for me in my work in the EP will be setting up and participating in a European wide discussion forum, which gathers people sharing the same vision of anti-federalist Europe with full employment.


In the Parliament we have formed an intergroup called "SOS Democracy" to defend the only known form of democracy: national state democracy. The intergroup gathers MEPs from all political groups in the Parliament and represents almost all Member States. We have a common goal: saving the democracy in the federalisation and militarisation process of the Union.