Kansanedustajien EY-kantaan vaikuttaneet taustatekijät

Authors

• Jukka Heinonen

Abstract

Finnish Parliament approved the application for the European Community membership on 18 March Factors Underlying the 1992. The Government’s proposal won the fourth and final vote by 108—55 against the SDP’s re- EC-opinions of solution, which also supported the application. Slightly better, though not perfect, picture of the way Finnish MP’s the opinions were divided for and against the EC membership in Parliament was offered by the sec ond vote. The above mentioned SDP’s resolution won by 133—60 the proposal opposing the EC membership made by the other two opposition parties, the Leftist Alliance and the Greens. The views of the MPs concerning EC application discussed in this paper are collected from an opinion survey made in January 1992. This paper considers the underlying factors influencing the EC opinions of the MPs. The stronger the ties with agriculture, the more likely the MP was to oppose the EC membership. The less educated MPs had more negative opinions about the EC application than their more educated colleagues. Over two thirds of the 78 female MPs were in favour of the application, whereas less than half of the male MPs supported it. The difference between sexes was partly spurious, since the majority of the female MPs belong to the parties that have a positive attitude to integration.