Political programme of the Greens 2023–2027

Approved by the party conference on 22 May 2022

Introduction

The Greens are seeking solutions together for the challenges of today and tomorrow. We need small solutions for individuals and big solutions for all of humanity. World events have impacts beyond national borders. The Greens represent a sustainable future by boldly taking a stand of world issues in accordance with our common values.

Finland has plenty of strengths that will help also in our current situation. A strong welfare state by international standards, lively democracy, sustainable economy and a high level of equality protect Finland against all manner of knocks. Close cooperation within Europe and beyond is crucial for a small country like Finland.

Finland, Europe and indeed the whole world have been beset by one crisis after another. A child born at the beginning of the millennium has lived through the euro crisis to a pandemic and war.

Although new crises have emerged, the old ones have not gone away. The limits of our planet are still being pushed by the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and depletion of natural resources. Our societies are still struggling with inequality and strife.

However, amid all this storm, we need new kind of resilience, against crises. Finland’s traditional strengths must be upheld, but we must also be able to renew ourselves.

We are prepared to renew our social structures and operating practices. We base our decision-making on researched data, strong values and listening to people. When the conditions around us change or we obtain new information, we are not afraid of re-evaluating our views.

Green solutions are particularly topical in our times. Heat pumps and wind power will help Finland to free itself from being dependent on Russian fossil fuels. High-quality education is the best antidote against attempts by foreign countries to influence us. People across the political spectrum have begun to understand that people freeing from war must be helped. More and more people see the value in providing good mental health services.

Our political programme describes which issues we want to focus on parliamentary term 2023–27. It is based on statement of principles describing green values and long-term goals. The political programme lays the foundation for our parliamentary election programme and government negotiations.

Our programme is divided into seven parts. We want to

stop biodiversity loss, build a climate-positive Finland and go over to circular economy;

develop wellbeing services, reduce poverty and strengthen safety aspects in all situations;
make economy more sustainable, increase the employment rate and make working life more flexible in changing life situations;
improve education at all levels, increase people’s involvement and invest in culture;
promote equality and equal opportunities and strengthen the principles of the rule of law and human rights;
support urban and rural vitality, make mobility and food sustainable and improve animal rights; and
deepen European and global cooperation, ensure Finland’s security and work towards a more stable world.

Within a democracy, decisions are based on the meeting various views and finding a balance in them. Programme proposals must also be carried out within the economic framework, maybe extending over more than one parliamentary term.

We do not want to leave behind ecological, economic or wellbeing problems for future generations. Society must be prepared well in advance to deal with major trends, such as the ageing of population, and urbanisation.

Amid all changes around us, we must ensure that nobody is left behind, which is why we want to ensure a fair a safe transition.

The Greens strives to be a party for the whole of Finland. We can all be part of the solution. To build a sustainable Finland, we need a team of more than five million players.

Everyone is needed, and everyone is welcome. Together we want to pave the way to a future that offers hope instead of threats.

Read more about the Greens’ statement of principles (2020)

Vibrant nature and stable climate

Ensuring biodiversity and protecting nature

Humans are part of nature and fully dependent on it. Biodiversity is also a key value in itself, and it is our duty to ensure that nature can thrive. This is why biodiversity loss must be stopped. The Greens want to protect Finland’s natural forests, marshland and water bodies. Destroyed and weakened nature must be restored and nature must be made a bigger part of cities, too. Environmental protection must be improved in all human activities, such as construction and mining operations. Clean air and water are valuable natural resources, which we must treasure together.

Significant expansion of nature protection, saving natural forests, marshland and water bodies

Gradual protection, in accordance with international requirements, of at least 30 per cent of Finland’s land and water areas in varying proportions, so that protection covers different parts of the country and different habitats equally.
Protection focuses on state and municipal land, areas in their natural or near-natural state, and creation of connections between protected areas. Protecting all old-growth forests owned by the state.
Establishing new national parks and strict nature reserves and expand the old.
At least doubling funding for nature conservation.
Nature restoration at least in the vicinity of existing protected areas, and increased care of traditional landscapes.

Better protection of endangered species

Ban on dangerous fishing methods in areas where the Saimaa ringed seal is found.
Ban on the hunting and fishing of endangered species.
Restriction of tree felling during the nesting season in areas with endangered birds.
Revitalisation of migratory fish stocks by updating the environmental and fishery obligations of hydropower companies, and by taking down the most harmful dams without affecting electricity production excessively, also by corporate governance means.

Nature protection and better wellbeing in cities

Making cities greener by setting nature goals for the built environment.
Promoting natural care of urban forests and green areas.
Supporting the use of the green coefficient and other sustainable zoning tools in municipalities.
Increasing funding for the maintenance of hiking networks and reclaiming land for buffer zones.

Stronger environmental administration and law

Enacting a nature act, equivalent to the Climate Change Act, with binding goals for the improvement of biodiversity, and strengthening the position of the Finnish Nature Panel.
Improving the opportunities for citizens to react to a weakening in the state of the environment by including environmental damage in the Act on Class Actions.
Setting up a police unit focusing on environmental crimes, and stepping up the prevention of illegal fishing and hunting.
Centralising environmental supervision and permits in a nationwide authority to ensure projects equal treatment throughout the country, increase permit procedure competence and reduce bureaucracy.

Harness financial guidance to strengthen natural capital

Assessing the climate and environmental impacts of government investments and subsidies. No investments in projects that may harm do considerable harm to the environment or climate.
No longer paying subsidies harmful to nature, such as draining of marshland.
Financing climate, nature and circular economy work in municipalities and regions.
Adopting ecological compensation, that is, obligation to compensate for weakened natural values by protecting and restoring nature in situations where damage cannot be prevented and where derogations pursuant to the Nature Conservation Act are required.
Expanding deductions for a donation to include not only science and culture, but also nature conservation.

Amend the Mining Act to protect nature and the rights of locals

Prohibit mining operations in any valuable nature areas, cultural environments and water areas.
Require the Sámi Parliament to reach their decision on any mining operations on Sámi homeland.
When considering mining permits and exploration, taking into account the effects on other industries, recreation and living in the area.

Improve water protection

Expanding marine national parks and establishing new ones, so that all biotopes of the open sea and the coast are well represented.
Obliging all vessels on the Baltic Sea to leave dispose of their wastewater ashore.
Preventing chemicals and microplastics from entering in waters.
Tightening the regulations concerning mining companies to prevent harmful substances from being released into the environment.

Read more about the Greens’ nature conservation programme (2018)

Clear transition to a climate-positive Finland and better energy-independence

We are in a hurry to address the climate emergency and to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Finland has also managed to reduce its emissions, but there is still plenty to do. This is why the clear transition towards a climate-positive economy must be speeded up. The Greens want to stop importing fossil fuels as soon as possible by increasing investments in domestic and sustainable energy, energy saving and energy efficiency. Any adverse effects on the climate must be reflected in the price of the activity on the ‘polluter pays’ principle. We will also create equality into climate work and support sustainable choices of citizens so that everyone has a chance to live sustainably regardless of, for example, their financial position or where they live. We choose efficient and sustainable climate solutions that create export and jobs.

Extending Finland’s emission goals and climate work

Extending the carbon neutrality goal of 2035 also to include emissions elsewhere that are caused by Finnish consumption, and setting quantitative goals for carbon sinks. Declaring a climate emergency.
Increasing Finland’s carbon handprint, that is, positive climate effect, outside Finland by more exports of climate solutions and by supporting climate work in poor countries.
Promoting carbon-sequestering technologies and carbon recycling into raw material by setting individual targets for negative emissions and technological carbon sequestration, and by inviting tenders for solutions through open auctions.
In climate work, emphasising nature-based solutions, such as marshland restoration, that prevent biodiversity loss.
Promoting the development of a market for voluntary emission compensation by enacting strong laws for it.

Ensuring people a fair transition by making sure that all groups are treated fairly in climate measures

Continuing and, if necessary, increasing the existing subsidies, and offering loans for people to renovate their homes to become self-sufficient in energy, to give up oil heating and to enable low-emission mobility.
Allocating energy funds for low-income people and people living in rural areas in case the energy and mobility expenses rise suddenly, as such people cannot quickly switch to low-emission alternatives.
Establishing a representative citizens’ panel to increase the acceptability of climate work. The panel, assisted by experts, makes proposals for fair climate actions.

Improving energy security and accelerating energy transition

Drawing up a national programme to improve energy independence, quickly giving up energy imports from Russia.
Seeking a solution, without jeopardising the Defence Forces’ radar problem, to build more wind farms in all parts of the country.
Speeding up, by means of investment subsidies and expedited write-off of companies’ energy investments, solutions not based on burning in heat production; energy storage; building of transmission networks for electricity and hydrogen networks; and energy demand response in a technology-neutral way.
Expediting the growth of solar and wind power and facilitating connection to the grid by such plants, and making the permit procedures lighter.

Ensuring that nuclear power remains safe as part of a sustainable energy approach.

Replacing the Fennovoima project, which unacceptable in terms of security policy, by building an equivalent amount of stable, emission-free basic production.
Granting extension for Finland’s existing power reactors if the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority considers them safe.
Amend the Nuclear Energy Act and make the regulations lighter for small nuclear reactors in particular, without compromising on safety.

Read more about the Greens’ Fair Change programme (2020)

Transferring to the circular economy and reducing the consumption of natural resources

In the circular economy, natural resources are used efficiently and economically by keeping using materials for as long as possible. Good and raw materials are shared, rented, repaired and modified. The Greens aim to harness the potential in the circular economy to the creation of wellbeing and to solving the sustainability crisis caused by overconsumption. The circular economy must be promoted by means of financial guidance, innovation and the markets. This will also create new trade and jobs. This change can help create a society where we have more time and less trash.

Improving material efficiency and reducing the consumption of natural resources

Setting a goal to halve the consumption of virgin natural resources in Finland by 2035.
Promoting business models within the circular economy, such as sharing economy and product as a service business.
Removing obstacles from reuse of building materials and demolition waste.
Extending the required usable life and repairability of buildings. Restricting the use of materials in construction that are harmful to the environmental and non-renewable. Facilitating the change of purpose of buildings left empty.
Increasing funding for research and development and export promotion of the circular economy.

Lobbying for effective circular economy measures in the EU.

Facilitate the reuse of waste as raw materials.
Working on extending manufacturers’ obligations to make products last longer and repairable. Extending the obligation of producers and importers to recycle products after their useful life.
Setting an obligation to replace at least 30 per cent of fossil plastics by 2030.

Harnessing financial guidance for the promotion of the circular economy

Reducing the VAT of repair services to 10 per cent.
Increasing the waste tax of landfill waste and extending it to include any waste taken to a landfill that could be utilised elsewhere.
Introducing taxes that limit the consumption of natural resources, such as soil and single-use products.
Drawing up roadmaps for the circular economy together with experts in each industry.

Wellbeing

Supporting the wellbeing of children, young people and families

In a child-friendly and family-friendly Finland, we make sure that children’s rights are respected, and support families in different situations, even fore the child’s birth. Investments in the wellbeing of children and families are important from the viewpoint of reducing gaps in the population’s wellbeing and health differences. The Greens’ approach is to tackle challenges in their early stages and offer help quickly. We want to ensure seamless cooperation between the wellbeing services counties and municipalities. We also want to ensure that services take account of the diversity of families and support people in reaching the number of children they want to have. Everyone deserves a good childhood and youth.

Supporting parenting and the conditions of families with children

Increasing home help for families that need it, and making it easy to apply for help.
Developing child health clinics to support families even better. Treating fathers and the child’s other guardians on an equal basis.
Include teenage services, that is, support services for teenagers and their parents and families, under family centre services.

Supporting dreams of having children

Ensuring through legislation and funding that fertility treatments are comprehensively and equitably available.
Enacting an ethically sustainable, non-discriminatory and non-commercial surrogate pregnancy act.
Ensuring access to reproductive health services.

Ensuring that children’s rights are respected

Promoting child budgeting in municipalities and wellbeing services counties, and assessment of effect on children in all decision-making.
Amending the Child Welfare Act comprehensively to ensure the best interest of children. Reducing the need for foster care with preventive low-threshold services and lighter non-institutional care services. Ensuring that the human rights of children and young people are respected in children’s institutions.
Investing in child welfare especially in services that help children and young people struggling with intoxicants, crime and aggressive behaviour.

Preventing exclusion and strengthening inclusion of young people

Assessing the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the wellbeing of young people and differences in how they have done at school. Starting a multi-year and cross-governmental programme to bring back young people’s wellbeing to level it was at before the coronavirus pandemic.
Making youth services available in centres where people under 30 can have free assistance and support in matters concerning, for example, studying, finding jobs, and housing. The nationwide Ohjaamo one-stop guidance centres could be used for this. Ensuring sufficient resources for such activities.
Increasing the involvement of young people at all levels of decision-making, making use of, for example, youth councils, student bodies and other obvious channels accessible to young people. Ensuring a representative chosen by the local youth council to speak and attend councils, board and committees in municipalities and wellbeing services counties, and the right to make a motion at councils.
Supporting young people to become more independent and to learn financial skills by transferring 25 per cent of the child benefit payable to the guardian to children aged 15–16.

Taking into account the diversity of families in the benefits and services related to parenthood

Giving a child the right to more than two legal parents.
Developing assistance services when parents are getting a divorce and emphasising the role of family mediation. Supporting equal shared parenting, by enabling a child two equal addresses and the payment of child benefit equally between the guardians by an announcement made by the guardians.
Increasing the supplement to basic social assistance for sole parents.
Granting any parents who have lost their underage child compassionate time off.

Read more about the Greens’ child and youth programme (2021)

Developing health and social services and improving people’s inclusion

The promise of the Finnish welfare state includes that people receive humane and effective health care regardless of their life situation and where they live. However, the differences in the health and wellbeing of people in Finland have grown. We, the Greens, want to reverse this development. This will be done, first and foremost, by strengthening basic public services, so that nobody is left on their own. In order to use health and social services funds efficiently and to ensure equal access, the focus must be shifted to prevention and the promotion of health and wellbeing. Mental health should be taken as seriously as physical health. We will also try to get to the root of mental health problems and to make Finnish society less focused of performance.

Helping people to make healthy life choices, prevent illnesses and promote early diagnosis

Improving low-threshold health services and increasing cooperation between health and social services on the one hand and exercise and cultural services on the other.
Developing early intervention models to prevent problems piling up, requiring more services.
Adopting models using dedicated GPs, tried and tested queue-less health centre models and low-threshold mental health service points.
Including in the treatment time guarantee a rehabilitation guarantee that defines how soon rehabilitation should be provided.

Responding to staff shortages in health and social services and supporting informal carers

Improving the attractiveness of health and social services not only by increasing pay but also improving working conditions, increasing the employees’ opportunities of influencing their work and by investing in expertise and good management culture.
Increasing, wherever necessary, health and social services training and foreign recruitment, taking into account the language requirements.
When supporting informal care, taking into account the many aspects related to children and young families.
Increasing the minimum informal care support and transferring its payment to the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela).
Creating a national strategy for informal care development.

Using health and social services funding effectively

Allowing wellbeing services counties the right to levy taxes to ensure autonomy, and encouraging funding focusing on prevention.
Reducing the number of parties funding health and social services. This will make the system more efficient and encourage to control costs better.
Supplementing public services with private and tertiary-sector services.
Extending freedom of choice with regard to health services also to include digital health and social services. Making digital health and social services compatible so that they can be used in multiple wellbeing services counties.
Increasing monitoring to ensure service quality.

Implementing therapy guarantee and creating in the whole of Finland basic-level, low-threshold mental health services

Increasing resources in the entire chain of mental health and social work with intoxicant abusers, from the basic level to specialised health care, also taking into account family members.
Making psychotherapy education free, thereby ensuring that there are enough professionals to deal with the work.
Developing an operating model for a mental health ambulance to support emergency medical care and 24-hour social services.
Ensuring that intoxicant abuse does not prevent getting help for mental health problems.

Ensuring humane care of the elderly and supporting living at home

Ensuring humane care and treatment in institutions for those who need it. Looking at the criteria for receiving round-the-clock care individually, also taking into account mental factors, such as feelings of insecurity and mental health problems.
Supporting living at home by means of care, support and safety services in the home. Helping to make homes accessible, and increasing care provided in their homes.
Ensuring everyone to adequate pain relief and good care during both illness and at the end of their lives. Increasing the staff’s expertise in end-of-life and palliative care and in death and how to meet it.

Ensuring independent life for persons with disabilities, inclusion in society and the right to decide about their own matters.

Supporting living that meets their own needs. Ensuring that disabled persons can choose where and with whom they live.
Identifying better the ill treatment of persons with disabilities and restriction of their right to personal autonomy, and reacting to infringements.
Increasing awareness among persons with disabilities about their own rights.
Enacting a law for disability services and right to personal autonomy that respects the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Improving sexual and reproductive health

Enacting a law allowing an abortion by personal decision up to the eighteenth week of pregnancy.
Reducing the age limit for voluntary sterilisation to 18 years.
Adopting free contraception for all men under the age of 25, covering all modern methods of contraception.
Ensuring that regardless of gender, everyone has access to high-quality fertility counselling and sexual health services.
Reducing the VAT on menstrual products and offering free menstrual products in schools and health centres.

Eradicating homelessness by 2027

Reducing long-term homelessness through counselling and continuing with the Housing First model.
Increasing round-the-clock crisis accommodation places around Finland.

Reducing problems with intoxicants and gambling and lowering the threshold for getting help

Increasing services for people with intoxicant problems and making it as easy as possible to get treatment.
Enabling by law to have safe, supervised drug rooms, which will reduce overdose cases and intoxicant use in public places and also offer help for intoxicant abuse.
Reducing problems caused by illegal drugs by decriminalising use by individuals and purchase, possession and growth for one’s own use.
Preventing, through cannabis regulation, intoxicant users’ problems from getting worse, and reduce crime and the shadow economy. Starting to legalise cannabis, market regulation and taxation, utilising experiences in Germany.
Ensuring the availability of legal cannabis-based drugs and doctors’ professional autonomy in prescribing them.
Transferring gambling machines into separate rooms or casinos without long transition periods.

Increasing patients’ involvement in their own care

Introducing patient and customer councils in health and social services and utilising peer support workers in decision-making.
Introducing personal budgeting in social services.
Ensuring chronically ill, disabled persons and others requiring plenty of health and social services in their daily lives the right to a service counsellor to assist with applications and use of services.
Strengthening people’s right to decide about themselves in end-of-life care and enact a law the allows euthanasia.

Read more about the Greens’ programme for the elderly (2020)

Reducing poverty and taking steps towards universal basic income

For the Greens, reducing poverty is one of their key political goals. The level of wellbeing in Finland is judged by how evenly wellbeing is divided and how the most vulnerable people are treated. The purpose of social welfare is to lift people out of poverty and to act as a safety net when life situations change suddenly. Universal basic income, which we have been advocating for a long time, would solve a number of problems related to inactivity traps and benefits. Guaranteed income and automation of benefits would be the first steps towards universal basic income. Our goal is to return social assistance as a temporary and last-resort type of assistance.

Taking steps towards universal basic income

As the first step, introducing an unconditional and tax-exempt guaranteed income of 200 euros to all adults in Finland covered by social security. Earned income and a large part of benefits would reduce the guaranteed income, benefiting people with low incomes, and not be available to those who do not need it.
Conducting an extensive universal basic income experiment. The experiment will include not only unemployed jobseekers but also people in a variety of life situations, and also involve taxation.
Combining benefits and their payment. Automating the decision-making of non-means-tested benefits, thereby professionals to help customers with their applications.

Reducing poverty with quick measures

Increasing the basic security by 50 euros per month.
Implementing a series of measures to fix social assistance issues, increasing the legal protection of people needing social assistance, with assistance being granted more equally and justly.
Removing the connection between basic security and unemployment benefits, so that improvements in basic security only apply to those who rely on it alone.
Reducing health and social services customer payments and introducing a common payment limit on health expense payments.
Tying the child benefit to the national pension index and returning the general housing benefit to the rent index, so that the benefits are in line with rising costs.
Granting social security on the basis of health and operating capacity more flexibly even if a clear diagnosis for the ailment cannot be found.

Preventing over-indebtedness and alleviating the position of debtors

Extending social credit to the entire country, for example a loan to a low-income person to help get their finances in balance.
Increasing the protected portion in garnishment, meaning that following garnishment, the minimum sum left for living expenses is 900 euros per month. Targeting garnishing primarily on capital and only after that to interest and collection expenses.
Shortening the limitation period of the debt in garnishing and reforming the debt adjustment model to be more reachable.

Read more about the Greens’ social security programme (2022)

Creating equal pension and unemployment benefits for all forms of work

The current earnings-related unemployment benefit puts employees in unequal position depending on whether they belong to an unemployment fund. However, unemployment benefits are primarily funded with all employees’ unemployment insurance premiums. The problem must be addressed by granting unemployment benefit to all who have been employed for a specific period before becoming unemployed. We also want to ensure that the pension system is sustainable and just.

Reforming unemployment benefit to be fairer and provide more incentive

Creating a staggered system of the duration of earnings-related unemployment benefit, so that even a shorter period of working entitles to a short period of unemployment benefit.
Linking the duration of unemployment benefit to the economic cycles of the labour market. During a downturn and difficult employment conditions, the unemployment benefit would be paid longer, while in an upturn the duration could be shorter.
Creating in Kela an earnings-adjusted daily allowance for unemployed people who do not belong to an unemployment fund.
Setting a reasonable monthly limit for social benefits that compensate earnings losses in full, such as the communicable disease allowance.

Accumulating unemployment benefit and pension regardless of the type of work

Reforming earnings-related unemployment benefit so that all taxable earned income accumulates benefits, whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur.
Moving towards a common pension insurance that is accumulated of all taxable earned income, including paid employment and running a business.

Ensuring that the pension system is sustainable and that generations and genders are treated fairly

Increasing pension contributions moderately well in advance to avoid having to make radical increases in the future. Balancing the expenses of an increase to the national economy by higher taxation of employment pensions or reducing or tax deductions concerning them.
Introducing a stabilisation mechanism for pension contributions that ties the level of contributions automatically to changes in, for example, population structure and pension profits.
Eliminating the lower limit of 18 years when pensions begin to accumulate.
Encouraging people receiving a pension tied to an income limit by compensating the income limits with a model in which any earned income in excess of the protected portion reduce the pension gradually.
Enabling the postponement of pensions months when old-age pension payment has already started.
Combining the national pension from Kela, and the guaranteed pension into a single, tax-exempt pension benefit. Implementing a change within the pension system in a cost-neutral way by enacting pension income tax deductions and surtax.

Equal education and thriving culture

Making Finnish education the world’s best

Most children in Finland are doing fine, although the pressures of high expectations and for success may be heavy. However, some are in danger of being without a social safety net and becoming excluded. The Greens want to ensure that every child get a quality early education, basic education and the necessary support throughout their educational path. Young people must have the space and support for choosing different paths, seeking and their way and changing direction, with adequate training to enter the labour market. Funding for education must be ensured, because the equality of education must not depend on the financial situation of whichever party is organising the education. Education is an investment with which we build the future.

Funding and developing education in the long term

Raising the financing of education to the same level as in other Nordic countries.
Reducing project-based educational funding and increasing the percentage of predictable basic funding.
Predicting inequalities between regions and schools by supporting, by means of sufficient equality fund, the operation of daycare centres and schools in areas with low education level, high level of unemployment, and families that do not have Finnish as their home language and families that have low incomes.
Adding provisions in the Basic Education Act concerning the minimum number of teachers per students to ensure each child sufficiently individual education and the proper conditions for teachers to do their work well.
Ensuring by means of sufficient student intake and pay that there are enough professionals in schools and daycare centres. Investing at all levels of education that teachers and other educational professionals can cope with work load and have good working conditions and tools.

Increasing funding per student in upper secondary education

Ensuring the availability, extent and sufficient contact teaching throughout the country in vocational and general upper secondary education.
Fixing the financing system for general upper secondary education and the practice that reduces unit prices annually.
Developing a student feedback system for all general upper secondary and vocational education.

Putting measures into effect to reduce differences in learning results

Extending two-year pre-primary education throughout the country.
Encouraging children and young people to read by means of new learning tools and interesting books. Paying particular attention to improving the reading skills of boys.
Ensuring the linguistic skills of children with foreign backgrounds to ensure equal progress in their school and study paths.
Extending instruction preparing for education to two year for children that need it.

Improving student welfare services and support for students at all levels of education

Ensuring sufficient and accessible student welfare services, intensified support, special support and individual study counselling.
Intensifying cooperation between school, youth work, health care and social work. Intensifying youth work and school and outreach youth work.
Address bullying and school violence immediately, effectively and in a multidisciplinary way. Ensuring this through legislation and by increasing competence and resources.

Read more about the Greens’ educational policy programme (2018) and child and youth policy programme (2021)

Ensuring the operating conditions of higher education and returning education and culture to the core of higher education policy

Finland rose from material scarcity to one of the most successful countries in the world thanks to education. High expertise, science and research constitute important capital to Finland. The Greens want to ensure stable, sufficient and predictable funding to guarantee free higher education and research. We want to raise the Finnish education level and results, higher education and research to the international top. The thirst for knowledge and changing needs of the labour market must be met by enabling continuous learning. The right to learn and receive education throughout your life belongs to everyone regardless of background or life situation.

Increasing the basic funding of higher education permanently and renew the system to encourage high-quality teaching and research

Changing the funding model of higher education Giving up the current graduation time coefficient and ensuring autonomy of higher education with sufficient basic funding.
Raising research funding to a level that enables ambitious and productive research.
Increasing higher education intake and funding the intake in full.
Amending the legislation to increase democracy in higher education

Making it easier to get to higher education

There must be multiple ways of getting to higher education, taking into account various financial and life situations. Success in secondary education and the entrance examinations must be equal selection criteria.
Facilitating changing career flexible for those who already have secured a study place, with the joint application system being increasingly used by those applying for the first time.

Enabling full-time study

Increasing the study grant by 100 euros. Removing the two-tier system for student financial aid, that is, division between Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.

Doing away with study time limits in higher education.
Ensuring the quality and accessibility of health services for higher education students on an equal basis.

Defending free education

No longer charging fees from students outside the EU and EEA

Increasing continuous learning

Making studying easier with unemployment benefit or sickness allowance.
Introducing a model that encourages continuing education and recognition of learning, such as a personal education account.

Read more about the Greens’ educational policy programme (2018)

Emphasising art and culture

In addition to their intrinsic values, art and culture have a number of positive effects. A lively cultural life has a beneficial effect on health, wellbeing, the economy, employment, even social stability and inclusion. It is important for the Greens that art and culture thrive in Finland. We are committed to defending the freedom, intrinsic value and diversity of the arts, and to ensuring the accessibility of cultural services. Cultural life can also be seen as a local attraction.

Making a significant addition to the state’s art and culture budget

Developing the cultural funding systems to support not only traditional artists but also new form of art, and spontaneous and experimental art.

Strengthening the role of culture as part of municipal vitality and business policy

Guiding municipalities to implement to art percentage principle in both construction projects and the urban environment. Creating incentives for using properties as temporary or permanent cultural venues.

Seizing the opportunities of creative economy

Setting a target to grow the percentage of GDP used for cultural and creative fields towards the EU average.
Introducing support measures to take into account the special characteristics of the cultural field, and channelling a greater percentage of the state export subsidy to the creative sectors.

Improving the financial conditions for making art

Increasing the state artist grants and artist and athlete pensions. Improving incomes for creative work from the new platforms and means while respecting consumers’ freedom of speech and privacy. Improving the transparency of royalties, financial efficiency, and the negotiation position of creative workers.
Developing a quick and effective compensation model when cultural and other events are restricted because of exceptional conditions.

Read more about the Greens’ cultural policy (2022) and information policy (2021)

Improving conditions for leisure activities, and strengthening the civil society

Leisure time is an important part of people’s wellbeing. The Greens want the threshold to be very low for anyone to enter a library, swimming pool or concert. We want to ensure that people’s financial situation is no obstacle for experiencing culture, nor a disability for doing exercise, and that every young person should have at least one hobby they enjoy. The operating conditions of organisations and civic movements must be taken care of, because inclusion begins at the grassroots level.

Ensuring that young people have a chance to have a hobby

Implementing a model in Finland to enable all children and young person to have at least one hobby they enjoy. Paying particular attention to children with disabilities or who do not speak Finnish as their native language.

Ensuring that basic art education is accessible and that payments become no obstacle for anyone’s hobby.

Strengthening libraries as meeting places and reinforcers of democracy

Making sure that library services remain an easily accessible local service.
Funding the digital transition of libraries, increasing the amount of electronic material and ensuring that the authors receive the same compensation as loans of physical works.

Encouraging everyone to take exercise

Ensuring grants to clubs and for the building of exercise facilities, and increasing support for non-competitive sports alongside competitive sports.
Giving more attention to any groups with various disabilities, and also minorities, in sports services.
Taking firm steps to eradicate bullying and discrimination in exercise and sports and adding this as a requirement for receiving funding.

Improving equality among people in voluntary cultural activities

Ensuring that children have an opportunity to make and experience art in day care and school.
Ensuring that people with low incomes have an opportunity to experience culture.
Launching the Kaikukortti card throughout the country, enabling health and social services customers to buy tickets for cultural and art events and register for courses in civic colleges.

Improving the operating conditions of civil society

Facilitate fundraising by associations by amending the Money Collection Act to be based on not permits but prior notification and monitoring.

Sustainable economy and fair working life

Reforming the economy and making taxation greener

The economy must support people’s wellbeing and social justice, and fit within the ecological carrying capacity. Financing the welfare society and green investments requires strong public finances. The Greens want to make structural changes to ensure that public finances are sustainable and that we will overcome future crises as well. We prevent tax evasion and make taxation fairer so that it reduces differences between people’s incomes and wealth. Taxation must be kept at the Nordic level that ensures enough funds to run a welfare state, and the system must be renovated to speed up the green transition.

Strengthening public finances by reducing the debt ratio in a way that nevertheless enables ecological and social investments

Balancing public finances in the medium term.
Enhancing the state’s role in evening out economic cycles so that during downturns, we increase demand with public investments or moderate tax reductions, and in upturns inhibit demand by accumulating funds for the state, cutting expenses and increasing taxes.
Cutting business support and tax expenditure that support existing companies or cause harm to the environment. Reforming existing support with an emphasis of changing the industrial structure and promoting the green transition.
Introducing metrics that supplement GDP, taking into account natural capital and human wellbeing. Retaining a public finances framework procedure but reforming it an a way that can accommodate tax income changes and enable necessary investments into the future. Assessing the combining reduced tax rates and increasing the general VAT rate to balance public finances, taking the effects of income distribution
Introducing a systematic assessment of gender effects, and gender budgeting.

Making Finland a major player in green investments

Keeping corporation tax at the Nordic level and preventing harmful tax competition through international coordination.
Improving Finland’s ability to attract foreign investments, for example by offering state guarantees and helping the work of Business Finland. Facilitating the registration of businesses in Finland.
Speeding up official processes in necessary green investments, such an wind farms and increasing electricity transmission lines by permanently increasing resources in administrative courts and authorities, and be doing away with overlapping permit processes.
Responding to competence needs connected to the green transition.
Enabling businesses and organisations to communicate with the authorities in English, and making a language used under Community law.

Improving public-sector productivity in the long term

Using automation to do away with unnecessary communication with regard to public services, and making digital services the primary method of communication. Using the funds that are saved to offer high-quality local services for those who need them.
Improve the use of public premises and enabling outsiders to do so too.
Streamlining the administration and doing away with unnecessary discretionary decisions.
Utilising primary and tertiary sector actors as the public sector’s partners and providers of supplementary production.

Reforming taxation to be fairer and more sustainable

Implementing a green tax reform of at least one billion euros, increasing environmental and consumption taxes and reducing the taxation of people with law and medium incomes.
Continuing to improve the automation and fluency of income taxation and income transfers by developing the Incomes Register to include all taxable income and by going over to real-time transfer of withholding tax data.
Introducing moderate property tax on large assets.

Preventing tax evasion and aggressive tax planning

Supporting at EU level and internationally attempts to unify tax base calculations and business taxation.
Obliging all large international businesses to report their taxes per country.
Increasing automatic exchange of tax information between countries.
Filling taxation loopholes that are used to evade, for example, taxation on investment income and dividends and company profits.

Making taxation of capital income fairer

Making low capital income tax-exempt and adding the progressiveness of the tax to reduce differences in incomes and assets.
Directing the lower dividend tax of unlisted businesses at small businesses by, for example, reducing the earnings percentage used for its calculation and by increasing the part of income tax subject to dividend taxation.
Making calculations about a model in which low-risk capital income below the normal yield are taxed at a lower percentage, while the part that exceeds the normal yield is taxed progressively, at the same rate as earned income. The model would encourage saving, to treat different investments neutrally and to increase the availability of rental housing.

Reforming the real estate tax

Increasing the minimum levels of real estate tax.
Removing gradually the transfer tax that slows down labour force mobility, compensating the loss of tax income to the state through real estate taxation, for example. Making the payment of real estate tax to prevent excessively difficult situations.

Read more about the Greens’ economic and employment roadmap (2019)

Improving the conditions for entrepreneurship, and investing in innovation

Entrepreneurship and the creation of something new results in work and wellbeing. Small and medium-sized companies play a particularly important role. This is why the Greens want to improve the conditions for entrepreneurship and to make markets work better. We will increase funding in research, development and innovation in order to develop new solution for future challenges. Public procurement must also be harnessed to speed up the green transition and the adoption of new solutions.

Speeding up the development and launch of innovations

Raising the public and private research, development and innovation funding to a total of four per cent of the GDP by 2030.
Channelling innovation funding to the development and testing of new solutions that speed up the green transition.
Creating a permanent and extensive research and development tax incentive to speed up investments in the private sector.

Accelerating the creation of new jobs, especially in small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs)

Reducing the employer contributions for the first employee’s first year of work.
Reforming public services to companies on a one-stop shop principle and developing the legislation to protect SMEs from unreasonable contract terms, such as excessively long payment periods.

Promoting open competition and fluently operating markets

Increasing the resources and authority of the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority if the markets are controlled by only a few players.
Reducing the number of pharmacy permits required, without compromising of medicinal safety and regional availability of medicines.
Creating a permit system for the sale of over-the-counter drugs in other than pharmacies.
Enabling the online sale of alcohol also for Finnish players.
Increasing the retail sales limit of alcohol from 5.5% to 15.5% so that the resale of alcoholic products below the limit will be permitted also other than in Alko shops.
Inviting tenders for selected train connections and establishing a separate rolling stock company to facilitate entry into the market.

Developing public procurement

Increasing innovative procurement by introducing a guarantee whereby the state carries part of the risk when new technology is being tested.
Amending the Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts to oblige taking into account the sustainability of procurement and excluding production areas on the basis of human rights issues.

Increasing employment and making working life more flexible in various life situations

It is important for the economy and people’s wellbeing that as many people as possible are able to have fulfilling jobs to help build society. The employment rate of working-age people must be raised to 80 per cent. The opportunities of people on pension to work part-time must be increased. The Greens want to improve the chances of people in a disadvantageous position in the labour market to find work. We will also make it easier to find a balance between work a family life and increase people’s opportunities to decide about their own working hours. Working life and the labour market must also be made fairer so that they better meet the meets of different types of people and businesses.

Making working life more flexible so that it takes better account of various life situations

Making the public sector a national example of employing incapacitated persons. Emphasising individual solutions in the employment of incapacitated persons that take account of differences between people.
Improving the right of, in particular, people over the age of 55, parents of small children, informal carers, people recovering from illness, and people from disabilities to work shorter hours.
Promoting an annual holiday bank, meaning that any unused leave will be transferred to the next job.
Ensuring employees the right to work from home to the extent that is possible in terms of their work duties, without causing undue inconvenience to the employer.
Employing people with specific skills sets, that is, people whose capacity is sufficient for particular type of work, by means of wage subsidies, for example.
Ensuring entrepreneurs doing platform work the legal right to organise, and charging platform companies social security contributions directly when work payments are made. Improving the supervision of the platform economy.

Facilitating the balance between family and work or study

Implementing a family leave reform so that responsibility for care and use of family leave is distributed more evenly than today.
Promoting the costs of parenthood more evenly between employers.
Eliminating daycare payments in stages.
Improving the chances of students with families to focus on their studies by being more flexible about granting student financial aid and degree completion times.
Giving grandparents the right to earnings-related parental leave and temporary care leave.
Replacing the current home care allowance with a flexible care allowance that gives parents more freedom to take family leave.

Improving wellbeing at work

Amending the Occupational Health Care Act and Occupational Safety And Health Act to include provisions on the prevention of psychosocial load.
Considering the possibility of mental health support as a statutory occupational health service.

Increasing immigration based of education and work and improving the employment prospects of immigrants

Granting international students permanent residence permit in Finland once they have completed their higher education degree, and supporting their employment.
Expediting the work permit process of foreign employees and their family members and helping them settle in by improved digital services.
Removing the process of first having to check whether an employee is already available in Finland before granting a work permit, and also doing away with limitations regarding industry and position in work permits.
Abandoning time limits for asylum seekers to start working.

Increasing local agreements within the collective agreement system

Enabling local agreement deviating from the applicable collective agreement in companies employing fewer than ten people by agreeing with the entire staff if no representative has been chosen among the employees.
Finding out whether deviating from semi-mandatory provisions within the labour legislation can be extended to other than nationwide collective agreements. Also finding out whether an elected representative could act as a contracting party in a company-specific collective agreement. Improving an elected representative’s right to obtain information and to receive protection to the same level as granted to shop stewards as agreed in collective agreements.
Enacting the employee’s interpretation privilege, according to which a dispute concerning a local collective agreement agreed pursuant to an industry-specific collective agreement will as a rule be interpreted in favour of the employee.
Strengthening the trade union movement’s ability to defend employees by allowing labour market organisations to file collective claims.
Enacting the option for small companies that have not joined an employer organisation to be included in a collective agreement.

Read more about the Greens’ labour policies (2021)

Secure and equitable rule of law

Promoting equality, equity and people’s freedom to be themselves

All social activities must be based on respecting human rights. The Greens is a feminist, anti-racist and pro-equality party. We strive to ensure that everyone has the right to be themselves, and we want to bring down structures that cause inequality in society. In particular, we must support people whose life opportunities are restricted by prejudice, difficult circumstances of various kinds, low socio-economic status or other factors related to background. No single characteristic should be allowed to dictate an individual’s worth or humanity in any society. Equality is part of the Finnish story. We will continue to work on it, there is still work to be done.

Promoting gender equality in society and working life

Promoting ways to improve equality, to tackle discrimination and to ensure legal protection by overhauling the Act on Equality between Women and Men.
Evaluating the gender effects of the government programme in advance and afterwards.
Bridging the pay gap in female-dominated sectors of the public sector by carrying out a long-term pay programme over several parliamentary terms. Preparing financing in collaboration with parties in a parliamentary fashion.
Increasing the gender-sensitive training of professionals working in early education and basic education, so that the genders share the same expectations.
Investing in student counselling to prevent differentiation in terms of study and industry choices based on gender and social and cultural background.
Promoting openness about pay and pay equity through legislation, encouraging fathers to make use of their parental leave and introducing quotas for the boards of listed companies.

Tackling intimate partner violence effectively

Complying in full with the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence.
Increasing the number and accessibility of shelters.
Making all services for victims of intimate partner violence free of charge ensuring funding for work and organisations combating violence.
Making it easier to get a restraining order and tightening enforcement. Increasing training for authorities about honour-related violence and combating sexual crimes, and finding out how the legislation should be changed.
Creating national structures for combating violence at various level of administration, and making combating violence mandatory.
Excluding repetitive and serious intimate partner violence from arbitration.

Ensuring inclusion of all people and promoting accessibility

Ensuring physical and social accessibility in all public services and premises.
Improving the accessibility of public digital services and offering a non-digital alternative for necessary transactions.
Ensuring that accessibility is implemented by imposing sanctions for non-compliance.

Combating hate speech, systematic harassment and victimisation

Improving the position and rights of and support for victims.
Creating for the police, prosecutors and other authorities clear and uniform instructions to combat digital harassment and persecution under existing legislation.

Promoting the position of Swedish and minority languages

Ensuring that the rights of Swedish speakers.
Ensuring the right to study Sámi, Karelian, Finnish Kalo and sign language throughout compulsory education. Supporting children’s native language, starting from child health clinics.
Ensuring the right of Karelians and Romani to their own language through language laws.
Ensuring continuous and sufficient funding to revive Sámi, Karelian, Finnish Kalo and sign language.
Implementing a truth and reconciliation process concerning deaf people to discuss state oppression.

Improving the rights of the Sámi peoples

Ratifying the International Labour Organization’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (no. 169) and the Nordic Sámi Convention.
Concluding the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, respecting the Sámi peoples.
Ensuring that the definition of Sámi about legislation on the Sámi Parliament corresponds with the Sámi self-rule.

Taking active measures to reduce racism and increase understanding between different world views

Introducing anonymous recruitment and other measures to hire people of varied backgrounds into public administration.
Preventing ethnic profiling and eradicating discriminatory attitudes by training public servants.
Reforming the curriculum so that at least a predefined number of weekly lessons per year of different world view subjects are common to all groups at all stages of education. Letting everyone choose their world view subject freely.
Promoting the equal treatment of all world views in society.

Ensuring everyone the right to decide about their body, and recognising the diversity of genders

Reducing the age limit of confirming legal gender from 18 to 15 years, and enabling the availability of treatments that postpone adolescence.
Adopting a legal third gender.
Reducing unnecessary distinction between genders in official contexts, and assessing whether a legal gender market could be done away with in the long run.
Enabling gender reassignment also for those who do not feel they fit a binary gender model.
Banning conversion therapy, that is, treatments that aim to change a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity.
Banning medically non-essential surgical procedures on the genitals of intersex children.
Banning the genital mutilation of children.
Improving the rights of people working in the sex and erotica industry, and including a human rights view into consensual sex work.

Creating just and humane rules for immigration

Finland is a multicultural country that must respect human rights. The Greens do not consider the movement of people across borders as a threat, rather a natural part of today’s world. We want that the people living here are a genuine part of society, being able to study, work and feel welcome. We will adopt the rights and obligations of immigrants as the basis of our integration policy, and work to make our society more receptive. The integration of immigrants must be supported and reduce deprivation caused by being an undocumented migrant, also creating more legal ways of seeking refuge.

Carrying out an overall reform of the Aliens Act on the basis of human rights, taking particularly into account the best interest of children, protection of family life and the right to study and work

Facilitating the availability of seeking of humanitarian protection. Introducing a humanitarian visa to enable a person to travel to Finland to seek asylum.
Increasing Finland’s refugee quota to at least 3,000 people per year.
Extending the arrangement corresponding to a long-stay visa to include the family members of people Finns and those who have been in Finland for a long period.
Making the subsistence requirement for getting a residence permit more reasonable, and waiving them when uniting families.

Supporting language learning in integration

Offering immigrants more Finnish and Swedish courses. Entering a language course must not be dependent on the reason the person entered the country.

Offering education also after the official integration period.
Ensuring by special measures that housewives and other parents staying at home take part in language training.

Preventing the existence of undocumented migrants and alleviation the position of such people already in the country

Ensuring that undocumented migrants have the right to comprehensive health care and social services, and their children to early education and basic education.
Granting legal residence and opportunity to study and work for asylum seekers who have been in the country for a long time, whose permit process has been unreasonably long, or who cannot be returned to their country of origin.
Improving the recognition of victims of human trafficking and developing the legislation and systems for helping human trafficking victims. Ensuring sufficient resources for combating human trafficking.

Defending the foundations of rule of law and ensuring that people are safe

Good life is built upon a feeling of safety and justice. Safety is not ensured merely by being protected against external threats, internal disruptive forces must also be addressed. The Greens want to ensure that help is available quickly when you really need it. In our legal system, everyone must have be genuinely be able to seek and receive justice. We must fight against social segregation and help deprived people and stop vicious circles that cause them to be excluded. We must be more prepared against hybrid influencing, cyber attacks and the like.

Conducting a ‘rule of law stress test’ to ensure that our system of rule of law can withstand attacks that have been experienced in certain EU countries

Assessing how well the foundations of Finland’s rule of law can resist any political pressure to undermine our rule of law and human rights. This must also cover the operating conditions of pluralistic media, freedom of speech and civil society. Implementing the measures discovered to ensure continued rule of law.
Improving the financial situation of the justice system and improve the operation and resilience of the rule of law by amending the legislation.
Reform the system of lay members of the district court to improve the legal protection of citizens.

Ensuring the National Security Authority’s operational capacity to secure people’s basic security and to protect their life and health

Increasing the number of police officers, rescuer workers and emergency response centre workers.
Strengthening the prevention of online crime against children.
Amending the criminal code so that threats against not only the police but also emergency medical care and social workers is a particularly serious offence. Tackling segregation development and juvenile delinquency through cross-governmental measures.
Preventing violent radicalisation and organised crime and improving support for those wishing to put a life of crime behind them.
Strengthening trust in the police by addressing shortcomings by the police regarding the investigation of sexual crimes, intimate partner violence and human trafficking.

Tackling hybrid influencing and improving digital security

Increasing funding for cyber crime investigation and to hire cyber prosecutors for the prosecution service.
Creating a common and continuous vulnerability programme in public administration to detect security flaws before they cause any harm.
Having exercises against various hybrid attack scenarios in collaboration with various sectors and the Defence Forces.
Fighting against influencing through information. Strengthening media literacy of children and young people through media education. Supporting parents and guardians to show children safe ways of using media, and to be critical of the media.

Ensuring that our society security of supply and capability to withstand crises

Reforming the operation of the authorities on the basis of what we have learned from the pandemic, without compromising on basic and human rights.
Ensuring sufficient capability for self-sufficiency in terms of energy production, defence, food production and other key social functions.
Ensuring, in cooperation with the private sector, the critical operations are available during times of crisis.
Developing voluntary crisis preparedness training, teaching citizens skills required in the preparation of exceptional conditions, surviving through them and giving assistance.

Ensuring that the electoral system is democratic

Reforming the electoral system to ensure that proportional representation and regional representation is ensured better than currently. This can be implemented by, for example, adopting a electoral area model suited to Finnish geography.
Lowering the limit for voting and eligibility to stand as a candidate to 16 years in all elections and citizens’ initiatives.
Online voting will not be introduced in national elections.

Promoting digitalisation and ensuring citizens their digital basic rights

Digitalisation affects us every day and is shaping society extensively. When the effects of digitalisation are guided with an information policy, we can build a better tomorrow for people and the entire planet. The Greens are promoting equitable and human-oriented digital services. We want digital services to be accessible, safe and user-friendly, but also want to have the same services available non-digitally to those who need them. We promote the openness of information produced with public funds, because open data improves transparency, makes for more efficient administration and helps to develop better services. The benefits of openness will radiate all round society, which is why providing data openly must be the fundamental duty of public administration.

Promoting human-oriented digitalisation

Reforming public services through digitalisation to be human-oriented and seamless, and to involve users for their development.
Utilising automated decision-making responsibly. Increasing location-independent and quick digital transactions.
Extending everyone’s right to control what information is stored of them in government services.

Continuing to open publicly funded information resources.

Establishing binding quality criteria for information resources so that the information is as easy to process and use as possible.
Requiring public-sector software projects to be compatible with other relevant systems and enabling reuse of information.
Fighting against influencing through information. Strengthening media literacy of children and young people through media education. Supporting parents and guardians to show children safe ways of using media, and to be critical of the media.
Ensuring a high level of privacy protection and data protection both at EU level and in national legislation.
Rejecting solutions that weaken data protection and encryption technologies, such as backdoors, because they weaken encryption everywhere, such as in banking.
Preventing general and non-specific mass surveillance both in business and governmental operations, including biometric surveillance, such as the use of fingerprints and facial recognition.
Preventing the use of personal identity code for identification purposes to avoid misuse.
Proscribing on the openness and risk classification of algorithms used in public decision-making, and creating legislation for AI-based automated decision-making.
Police powers concerning privacy protection and secrecy of communications will not be extended.

Read more about the Greens’ information policy programme (2021)

Vibrant areas and sustainable mobility

Ensuring the conditions for good life in all of Finland

The Greens want to see a Finland in which areas are developed with consideration for their specific conditions, and ensuring that all areas are developed. It must be possible to have a good life, sustainable lifestyle and to be able to work and run a business, regardless of where you live. The Greens’ regional policy rejects inequality and the climate crisis everywhere, but different solutions are suited for different areas.

Supporting sustainable growth in urban areas

Promoting a sustainable community structure by ensuring funding for agreements between the state and municipalities concerning land use, housing and traffic arrangements.
Creating an urban structure that makes a sustainable life style and emission-free mobility easy.
Preventing rents from rising by ensuring sufficient housing production with sound zoning and plot policies and by increasing the construction of affordable housing.
Increasing the number of railway stations and starting regular commuter trains near, for example, Turku, Oulu, Lappeenranta, Lahti and Kouvola. Allowing urban areas to request tenders for train traffic with government subsidies.
Preventing segregation of residential areas by ensuring that housing is built in different areas for all types of life situations. Supporting development projects in suburbs and investing in variable development in different parts of cities.
Increasing comfort and vitality in city centres by increasing pedestrian streets and areas where walking is favoured.

Improving the conditions for a good life and vitality throughout Finland

Ensuring that a good variety of education is available throughout the country.
Enabling innovative solutions to maintain the service network, for example by developing remote caring models. Reforming regulations boldly and promoting regional experiments.
Developing fixed route demand service and combining of transport in sparsely populated areas.
Supporting information and expert work also outside the larger cities. Building internet connections in all built areas, enabling working and running a business.
Enabling government jobs to be performed from multiple locations.
Increasing the use of the EU as a source of financing.

Creating built environments that serve people of all ages and conditions, and making it easy for people to meet each other

Financing municipal projects that promote walking, cycling and public transport.
Ensuring a connection to local nature in every residential area and a versatile population, with each area home to people in different life situations and from different backgrounds.

Building a sustainable and fair transport system of the future

People and goods must move within the country and across borders fluently and sustainably. Traffic emissions in Finland must be at least halved and air travel emissions also reduced outside Finland. This is why the Greens want to invest in public transport in particular, and walking and cycling and the electrification of transport. We will improve the conditions for the transport industry and motoring to reform. We will reform the financial guidance of traffic to encourage sustainable choices in what is a reasonable way in each region.

Promoting rail transport throughout the country and keeping roads in good condition

Investing more in rail transport, focusing particularly on connections that replace domestic air travel; track maintenance and electrification; and getting rid of rail network bottlenecks.
Channelling air travel subsidies for the improvement of train connections and reduction of air travel emissions.
Improving train connections to Sweden and the Baltic countries by promoting the Rail Baltica project and tunnel to Tallinn.
Focusing funds budgeted for road to maintenance and improvement of safety.
Establishing new night train services.

Reforming the financial guidance of mobility to be sustainable

Shifting the focus of transport policy so that all development projects support various forms of sustainable mobility – public transport, cycling and walking.
Increasing support for projects that promote walking and cycling and support the purchase of electric bicycles. Supporting the extension of charging network of electric cars and of biogas distribution, and shared use of cars.
Changing the commuting expenses so that low-income persons get the greatest benefit and people are encouraged to cycle or use public transport wherever it is reasonable. Supporting public transport also directly to increase its use.
Enacting, following other countries’ experiences, an air travel tax based on air travel emissions.
Promoting emission trading of road traffic at EU level and continuing the preparation of national emission trading in case the system does not proceed well in the EU and emissions are not reduced sufficiently by other means.
Encouraging urban areas to introduce congestion charge if emission goals are not reached by other means. Any proceeds from the charges are channelled to improve public transport in the region. If congestion charges are realised, the privacy of motorists is protection.

Assessing the introduction of regionally fair road tolls

Staggering charges so that they are highest where motoring causes the most inconvenience and where there are the greatest number of alternatives for using your own car.
Using the charges to replace fuel taxes in stages to prevent the state’s tax income from being reduced significantly in the future as fossil fuels are being phased out.
Implementing the charging without compromising on privacy and without centralised location monitoring of vehicles.

Improving the competitiveness and sustainability of the transport industry

Granting support for the acquisition of low-emission vehicles used commercially.
Introducing a road toll for heavy-duty transport, especially on international transit traffic.

Making sustainable activities profitable in agriculture and forestry

Agriculture is undergoing changes in Finland and around the world. Dependent on imported fossil raw materials increases prices, and many entrepreneurs are in financial difficulty. At the same time, agriculture and forestry requires reform and investments in tackling climate change and insuring biodiversity. The Greens want to ensure that farmers can enjoy wellbeing and get a fair price on the food they produce. Our agricultural policy aims at renewal so that the productivity of food production is improved, self-sufficiency is increased and environmental impacts are reduced. Animal wellbeing, social sustainability and the state of the environment are emphasised more and more among consumers, bringing a competitive edge to farmers. The subsidy policy must be reformed, so that environmentally sustainable solutions are always the financially best alternative for farmers.

Developing food markets, so that the producer receives a sufficient income

Improving agreements between producers, the food industry and trade. Addressing the dominant position of trade through legislation.
Introducing a Finnish fair trade sign for products at a higher price, with consumers knowing that this will benefit producers directly.
Considering direct sales from farms from being VAT-exempted.

Channelling agricultural subsidies to active farmers so that the subsidies are tied to food production, security of supply and maintenance of ecosystem services provided by nature

Supporting the energy self-sufficiency of agriculture, for example by promoting the production and use of biogas.
Channelling fuel tax refunds to a subsidy to help farms start using domestic, renewable energy. Channelling the basic support so that the subsidy becomes gradually smaller, the larger the farm.
Attracting young farmers agriculture and improving the ability of farms for investments of renewal.
Doubling organic production, which is self-sufficient in terms of fertilisers compared with traditional production.
In order to improve sustainability and self-sufficiency, introducing organic methods also in the subsidy criteria of ordinary production.
Lobbying the EU so that products produced in and imported into the EU must increase the minimum level of environmental and animal protection and working conditions.

Increasing plant-based food production in Finland and reducing meat consumption

Ensuring a controlled and fair transition by creating a long-term strategy for the reduction of animal production and animal-based food and an increase in plant-based food production in Finland.
Supporting the product development and increased production of domestic plant-based protein and feed.
Making public food services mostly vegetarian.

In the production of animal-based foods, promoting practices that improve nutrient recycling and support biodiversity

Improving the competitive edge of Finnish meat that is almost free of antibiotics by introducing a tax on antibiotics for meat sold in Finland.

Reducing agricultural emissions into the air and water

Encouraging carbon sequestering in agriculture and forestry with new carbon sink compensation.

Improving soil fertility and reducing the need for fertilisers by promoting methods of regenerative agriculture.
Reducing the clearing of peatlands into fields by introducing a clearing fee.
Improving the condition of the Baltic Sea by tighter fertiliser restrictions on risk fields, by increasing buffer zones on fields, by intensifying nitrogen removal in treatment plants and by increasing lime and gypsum processing and nutrient cycling.

Increasing the diversity of commercial forests and improving their resilience against damage

Diversifying the species of trees and age structure in commercial forests and increasing the amount of rotten tree.
Transferring from clear cutting to mainly continuous growth in state-owned commercial forests.
Increasing education and information about continuous cover forestry also to private forest owners.
Turning the added value of forest industry on a growth path by allocating existing forestry subsidies into research, development and innovation. Creating, for example through public procurement, markets for long-term timber products, and promoting wood construction.

Read more about the Greens’ agricultural policy (2018) and forestry policy (2020)

Improving animal rights and wellbeing

Our current way of life is based on the exploitation of an unprecedented number of animals, which is both ecologically and ethically unsustainable. The debate about animal wellbeing and rights has increased sharply in recent years, and more and more people are concerned about the treatment of animals. In the Greens’ mindset, animals have a value that is independent of people, and no price can be put on it. Humans have a special responsibility towards other animal species, as we have the power to exert control over them, and we also have the power to assess the morality of our actions. Legislation must meet animal protection challenges and the most recent research about the abilities and needs of animals. However, this requires a significant change in our consumer habits and how we treat animals.

Ensuring farm animals the opportunity for free movement and behaviour typical of them

Banning old-style cowsheds where animals have restricted movement; cage rearing; and any procedures that cause pain, such and castration of piglets and dehorning of calves. Increasing the amount of space for animals to move in, stimulation and opportunity to be outdoors, and extending the wellbeing requirements for organic standards to include all farm animals.
Banning fur farming with a short transition period and offering fur producers subsidy for abandoning their business.

Addressing the wellbeing problems caused by animal breeding and banning the breeding of breeds that have become ill due to overbreeding. Taking animal needs into account in all activities affecting animals

Prohibiting any hunting methods that cause suffering.
Supporting animal research and using the most recent findings as basis for decision-making. Investing in medical that require no animal testing in medicine.
Ensuring sufficient resources for counselling for animal welfare and animal protection to address any problems.
Introducing obligatory identification tags for pets, at least for dogs, cats, and rabbits.

Read more about the Greens’ animal policies (2018)

Finland has a strong part of Europe and the world

Deepening European cooperation

In order to solve major problems of our times, we need a strong Europe. The European Union can together, better than individual countries, to tackle climate crisis, problems with democracy and instability in our neighbouring areas. This is why the Greens want to deepen and expand European cooperation. We want to make the European Union more resilient and more social. The EU’s financial and economic policy must be reformed to meet modern needs. We also want to strengthen the cornerstones of European cooperation: human rights, rule of law and democracy.

Tackling the climate crisis and biodiversity loss by strengthening the EU’s green development programme

Bringing forward emissions targets, improving emission trading and carbon sinks and updating the sustainability criteria of bioenergy.
Financing rail connections that across national boundaries and require new cars to be emission-free by 2030.
Setting a target to halve the consumption of virgin raw materials within the EU by 2040.
Expanding the network of European protected areas and increasing nature restoration within the whole of the EU.

Updating the EU’s financial and commercial policy

Reallocating agricultural and regional subsidies and other EU funds to support expertise, energy-independence, the green transition and the most vulnerable groups of people.
Supporting proposals for increasing EU’s own funds, for example with carbon border tax and the taxation of digital giants.
Taking an active part in the debate on renewing the EU’s economic and debt regulations. The new regulations must enable crucial investments necessary for the green transition. The regulations must be credible yet at the same time flexible to accommodate different circumstances in the member states.
Developing a permanent financing procedure for the Union so that it can, when necessary, respond efficiently by means of controlled recovery measures to any exceptional crises that destabilise the economy.

Promoting responsible business practices and addressing harmful text competition

Enacting a EU-wide mandatory corporate responsibility law, obliging businesses to prevent environmental and human rights violations throughout the production chain.
Creating common calculation methods for corporation tax and setting a minimum level for it.

Responding to migration while respecting human rights

Creating safe and legal routes to seek asylum in Europe.
Promoting a fair division of responsibility in accepting refugees and asylum seekers between the EU member states.
Addressing the root cause of people becoming refugees by supporting sustainable development and democracy in the countries of origin.

Building a social Europe and investing in competence

Creating EU-wide basic security and minimum conditions for working life that ensure the livelihood for the most vulnerable and realisation of their rights.
Increasing the Union’s funding in research and development and student exchange.

Increasing democracy in EU’s decision-making

Allowing the elected European Parliament to put forward legislative initiatives.
Introducing majority decisions in the Council of Europe in most cases, so that individual Cannot prevent the rest of the Union from proceeding.
Tying Union funding to member states closely to respecting the rule of law, democracy and human rights.
Making it easier for European countries that fulfil membership conditions to join the Union.

Read more about the Greens’ Europe programme (2021)

Engaging in bold world politics on the basis of our values

International cooperation must rely on targets concerning equality, human rights equality the rule of law, democracy and peace. Our country can be greater than our size in solving problems that affect the entire world. This is why the Greens want Finland to defend a rule-based world order and strengthen the position of the United Nations. We promote the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and increase international development and environmental funding.

Improving international cooperation

Introducing a foreign policy that systematically promotes equality between the genders.
Promoting the cooperation of democratically run countries as opposed to allowing oligarchies to gain ground.
Supporting the UN as the primary forum for international cooperation, and making the organisation more efficient and effective.
Promoting the renewal of the UN Security Council to be a better representative of the world, and applying for Finland to become a member in 2030.

Increasing and intensifying funding for international cooperation

Increasing funding for development operation to 0.7 per cent of GDP and gradually increasing the share of developed countries and non-governmental organisations.
Responding better to increasing needs of humanitarian aid.
Promoting international climate justice by increasing international climate and nature financing, supporting the compensation of climate damage and promoting the implementation of climate solutions.
Requiring all development cooperation to be effective and efficient.
Emphasising in development cooperation equality between the genders, the rights of minorities, education and family planning.

Promoting sustainable development in all international cooperation

Supporting the removal of obstacles to trading and requiring international trade and economic agreements to include stringent environmental, human rights and working condition terms.
Attempting to slow down population growth by promoting human rights and social development.
Supporting, in particular, the civil societies of oligarchies and defenders of human rights.
Striving to introduce the criminalisation of environmental disasters, that is, extensive environmental damage caused by humans.
Removing patent protection from vaccinations and medicines that have been created with public funding provided this is necessary to ensure the lives and health of people in global pandemics, for example.

Insuring Finland’s defence under all conditions

The European security situation has been knocked off balance, and instability around the world has increased. This is a moment when Finland has to reassess its position within defence cooperation and strengthen alliance with other countries. The Greens want to develop conscription and ensure Finland’s defence capability under all conditions. We also want to make Finland a major power in building peace. We must also strengthen international agreements that limit damage caused by war, and promote a world without nuclear weapons.

Strengthening defence cooperation

Taking joint responsibility for the safety of the EU and near-lying areas, developing mutual assistance between member states and organising joint exercises to prepare for major accidents and armed attacks.
Tightening Nordic defence cooperation.
Supporting Finland’s NATO membership and ensuring that as a member, Finland will promote stability, peace and security in Europe and around the world.

Reforming conscription in stages so that they treat people equally, develops resilience to crises in a broad sense and ensures Finland’s military security

In the first stage, the entire age group is called up. Conscription would be participated in by men and any female volunteers. Shortening non-military service so that its length would not be considered a punishment compared to military service. Conscientious objectors should not be punished.
In the second stage, an investigation will be made on military service for men and women, with subsequent preparations for reforming the system. The purpose of the reform is to ensure military capability by training the current number of conscripts, but chosen equally among people of different genders.

Defending peace and strengthening security internationally

Continuing a strong role in crisis work, crisis management, disarmament, peacekeeping and conflict mediation. Strengthening women’s role in promoting peace and involving the entire society.
Defending the status of the Åland Islands as an autonomous and demilitarised area. Developing autonomy through constructive dialogue between the Åland Islands and Finland.
Banning arms exports to countries run by oligarchs, and to countries that systematically violate human rights or attack other countries.
Having Finland ratify international agreements that ban cluster bombs and nuclear weapons.
Promoting nuclear disarmament and keeping Finland and the Nordic countries free of nuclear weapons.
Promoting an international agreement to ban autonomous weapons that can seek, identify and kill the target independently without human control.