Jukka Salovaara, the newly installed European Union ambassador to the UK, is likely to become a ubiquitous figure in national politics as the Andy Burnham government grapples with the question of its future relationship with the European Union. Burnham has been clearer than his predecessor Keir Starmer in saying that what exists now is not working and that a full range of options, including rejoining, has to be on the table ahead of Labour’s next election manifesto. Salovaara, aged 58, sees his role over the coming years as a “facilitator”, testing both sides like a good diplomat on what might fly and what will not work.
He will not sit at the negotiating table, but he will be “very close to it”. The UK, he says, remains “the European Union’s first and foremost partner”. When the two have made agreements, it has always been to “our mutual benefit”.
A former permanent secretary in Finland’s foreign ministry, who also served as his country’s ambassador to the UN, this is his first job with the European Commission, but not his first posting in the UK. As a young diplomat in the summer of 1996, he handled European affairs in London for Finland at the onset of Cool Britannia, just as Tony Blair was on the cusp of gaining power. Interdependence was expected to provide security, and global norms and rules were strengthening.
There was a feeling that globalisation and a rising tide would lift all boats.” The Labour government, he recalls, came “very close” to joining the euro. Since then, different ghosts have dominated UK politics. His office in Smith Square is just one floor up from that used by Margaret Thatcher in Conservative Central Office.
The building was also a haunt for Nigel Farage when he was an MEP. Burnham’s first EU summit is now pencilled in for November. Salovaara says issues such as how UK traders can avoid being caught up in the EU’s plans to prevent subsidised Chinese products flooding European markets will not be up for decision.
The EU will not have completed its own legislative proposals by the time of the summit. Salovaara says there are plenty of themes – food standards, linking the UK and EU carbon emissions trading scheme, youth mobility, and security – to keep the summit meaningful. On food, he points out: “When we have common standards we don’t need border checks.
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