Jutta Urpilainen

Jutta Urpilainen (born August 4, 1975 in Lapua , South Ostrobothnia ) is a Finnish politician . From 2008 to 2014 she was chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and served as Finland's finance minister until 2014. She is the EU Commissioner for International Partnerships in the von der Leyen Commission .

Urpilainen studied education at the University of Jyväskylä and in Vienna and graduated in 2002. After completing her studies, she initially worked as a teacher.

Member of Parliament

Urpilainen at the hearing in the European Parliament for her appointment as EU Commissioner (2019)

In March 2003 she was elected to the Finnish Parliament as a member of the Vaasa constituency. Before that, she had been a member of Kokkola City Council since 2001 . Urpilainen succeeded Eero Heinäluoma in 2008 as chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland and won the election for chairmanship against Erkki Tuomioja . After the Finnish parliamentary elections in April 2011 , Urpilainen became finance minister as junior partner to the Conservative Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen .

In 2011 Urpilainen enforced the “Finnish pledge” against the other euro states: Finland received security from Greece for its participation in the euro crisis fund EFSF . Greece transferred 930 million euros to an account; this amount covers most of the Finnish contribution to aid to Greece.

In July 2012, her spokesman denied claims that she had threatened Finland with leaving the euro. Urpilainen rejects a banking union or liability for the debts of other eurozone countries. The decision of the EU summit in Brussels at the beginning of July 2012, according to which the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) may also buy government bonds from Spain and other euro countries under pressure, also raised concerns in Helsinki.

On May 9, 2014, Urpilainen was defeated by trade unionist Antti Rinne at the SDP party congress in Seinäjoki in the vote for party chairmanship with 243 to 257 votes. She then announced her resignation as finance minister, which took effect on June 6, 2014. Here too, Antti Rinne followed her.