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The capital of Finland is Helsinki, its area measures 337,000 square kilometres, the population is made up of 5,200,000 inhabitants, the gross domestic product is 143.2 billion Euros. The inflation is 0.2%, its unemployment rate is 8.8%, the deficit is –2.3%, and its National debt is 44.8%. Finland is a democratic republic. Its constitution goes back to 1999, when the total revision by the Parliament unified the former 4 constitutional texts in only one text. The form of government is a parliamentary one, with a presidential trend. The Finnish Parliament has an unicameral structure and it is made up of 200 members elected every 4 years. The electoral system is a proportional one with no blocking, the seats are awarded according to districts and the Finnish territory is divided into 15 electoral districts. Tha last national elections took place on the 16th March 2003. The Prime Minister is elected by the Parliament and later appointed by the President of Republic. The President also appoints the other members og the Government, according to the Prime Minister’s proposal. The President of Republic is elected by direct universal suffrage, with a double-turn system. His office lasts for 6 years and he cannot be elected more than twice. The President of Republic is now a woman, Tanja Halonen, belonging to the Social-Democratics: she’s been elected in March 2000 and she will be in office until January 2006. As far as the political system, the centre party and the social-democratic party, traditionally in coalition, compete for the relative majority and the Government leadership. They often dominate the Finnish political scene, sometimes supported by the conservative “National Coalition”, i.e. the former communists of the leftist alliance. We have to mention, among the others, the Green Party and the Swedish Party, that represents the huge minority of Swedish-speaking people in Finland. The Government is presently held by a centre-leftist coalition, made up of the centre party, the Social-Democratics and the Swedish People Party. The Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, in office since June 2003, belongs to the Centre Party that presently owns the relative majority within the Parliament. Finland joined the Union the 1st January ’95, after people voted for the adesion in October ’94, with the 56% of “Yes”. Before the enlargement Finalnd used to own 16 seats within the European Parliament; since the last elections it presently has just 14 seats. On the 13th June 2004 elections, the affluence touched the 41%, slightly more than the European average. The conservatories of the National coalition were confirmed as the relative majority party, with the 23.7% of votes and 4 seats and they joined the popular parliamentary group. The two main parties were slightly penalized by the astension. The centre party get the 23% of votes and 4 seats and joined the “Liberals and Democratics for Europe”; the Social-Democratics gained the 21% of votes and just 3 seats, joining the Socialist party; the Green Party, the Leftist alliance and the Swedish people Party gained 1 seat for each within the European Parliament. The Finnish commissary within Barroso’s commission is Olli Rehn, belonging to the centre party, and he is responsible for the Union enlargement policy.
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