Finland looks set to pass EU recovery package after opposition abstention

All of the EU's 27 members must ratify a decision by the bloc to increase the upper limit for national contributions to the EU budget, in order for it to borrow the 750 billion euros ($905.4 billion) needed to implement the recovery fund. The five-party centre-left coalition government was scrambling for votes after the constitutional committee ruled on Tuesday it needed a two-thirds majority in the 200 seat parliament to pass the deal.

One of Finland's two main opposition parties said on Tuesday it would abstain from a vote on the European Union's coronavirus recovery package even though it opposes the deal, almost certainly giving the government enough votes to ratify it. All of the EU's 27 members must ratify a decision by the bloc to increase the upper limit for national contributions to the EU budget, in order for it to borrow the 750 billion euros ($905.4 billion) needed to implement the recovery fund.

The five-party centre-left coalition government was scrambling for votes after the constitutional committee ruled on Tuesday it needed a two-thirds majority in the 200 seat parliament to pass the deal. The opposition eurosceptic Finns Party and the centre-right National Coalition hold 38 seats apiece.

"The National Coalition party does not approve the result the government reached, but at the same time does not want to push the EU into chaos, hence we will abstain from voting," Kai Mykkanen, head of the party's parliamentary group, told reporters. "If the government's parliamentarians vote for the government, the package will be approved."

The second biggest member of the coalition, the Centre Party, has clashed with their ruling partners over public spending and Finland's path back to growth after the pandemic in recent weeks, but its parliamentary chairperson Antti Kurvinen said it would support the government in the vote. Ville Tavio, the parliamentary chairperson of the nationalist Finns Party, told Reuters its members would vote against "income redistribution and the deepening federation".

No date has yet been set for the vote, but the European Commission has set a deadline of April 30 for its plans. ($1 = 0.8284 euros)

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