Thank you for your warm welcome to Helsinki, and for showing me the Turva. This ship is a powerful symbol of Finlands preparedness – as you just said you are prepared, ready to deter threats and to defend European interests at sea. Finland has always lived next to a dangerous and unpredictable neighbour. Putin has not changed; he is a predator. It was impressive for me to hear that your border with Russia is 1,300 km. But I want to reassure you and Finland that it is not only Finlands border, it is also Europes border very clearly. And therefore, it is our shared responsibility to protect it. That is why, in our proposal for the next modern EU budget, we are tripling investment in migration and border management. Member States with a direct border with Russia and Belarus will receive additional EU funding. Also to support the livelihood of the border regions where it is also so important to invest. I also want to remind that cohesion policy will remain at the heart of our budget, and I can recommend using the new flexibilities of the cohesion funding, not only for border protection but also to develop the border regions. So, we continue to support both, border security and strong livelihoods.

Dea Petteri,

The risks that Finland has warned about for years have now materialised. Russias brutal war against Ukraine is now in its fourth year. It is obvious that Putin will not stop there. We had presentations today on how Russia is probing the vulnerabilities of our own infrastructure. We are seeing serious damage to our critical networks, such as the EstLink 2 power cable for example. And the shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea is still fuelling Russias war economy, it was very impressive for me to see today the facts and figures that you presented; therefore, I see very clearly that we have to step-up our actions against the shadow fleet.

I want to assure you, that when Finland is tested, our whole Union is tested. That is why, as we continue to strengthen Ukraines defence, we also take greater responsibility to strengthen our own defence. This is the logic of our new up to EUR 800 billion Defence Industrial Plan – to strengthen our own defence -, and in this plan is the joint procurement instrument, SAFE, which is Turva as Ive learned in Finnish. With SAFE, we are producing the capabilities Europe needs most, so the emphasis with SAFE is on joint procurement: air and missile defence, drones, cyber-defence – and of course, it also includes the work we do together for the resilience of our critical infrastructure. The demand for European investment is very obvious. 19 Member States, including Finland, have requested support under SAFE. I am pleased to announce that we have reached full subscription of the instrument, the whole EUR 150 billion. And this is a good sign. Many Member States have indicated that they will also use the SAFE funding to support the Ukrainian defence industry. So this whole approach is a true European success, and we are on the right track. There is a lot of work ahead of us, but we are on the right track. 

Dear Petteri,

On top of this, you have asked for budget flexibility to boost defence spending under the national escape clause. 15 Member States have done the same. This too shows the seriousness and the understanding of the sense of urgency that Member States have. We are investing more; we are investing together; and we are investing European. The objective remains robust collective preparedness. And here, as you just said it is not only military preparedness, but a whole-of-society approach, as outlined in the Niinistö report which is a guiding star for much of the work we are doing.

Now to finish we have three main tasks or fields of work ahead of us. First, to keep-up the spirit of urgency, this is hard work. Therefore, in October, we will take stock together at the European Council of where we are with the defence procurement in the European Union, so we will present our Roadmap for Readiness. Second, by 2030, our aim is to have significantly strengthened our defence capabilities and to have closed the gaps. And third, which is a parallel task, we will contribute to ironclad security guarantees for Ukraine. This is also the reason why in the new modern EU budget we have tripled the funding for migration and border protection, we have proposed a fivefold increase in defence investment, and, very important for Finland, a tenfold increase in funding for military mobility. It is high time for readiness.

Thank you again for the invitation, it was extremely interesting to be here, and I am looking forward to work together on these tasks.