Alexander Stubb

Bilingual childhood

Stubb was born in Helsinki into a bilingual family; his father was a native Swedish speaker and his mother a native Finnish speaker. Stubb spoke both languages at home. His father Göran Stubb worked in the business of professional ice hockey and was the CEO of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association from 1976 to 1983.

Education

In 1986 Stubb graduated from Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Florida and, two years later, graduated from the Gymnasiet Lärkan in Helsinki. After completing his military service, he won a golf scholarship to Furman University in South Carolina. At Furman, Stubb studied political science and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1993. The following year he studied French and obtained a Diploma in French Language and Civilisation from the Sorbonne in Paris. Stubb speaks five languages: Swedish, Finnish, English, French and German.

In 1995 Stubb graduated as a Master of Arts in European Affairs from the College of Europe, Belgium. He then studied for the degree of PhD in the International Relations Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science, under the supervision of William Wallace, and gained his doctorate in June 1999. Wallace later said: "LSE has had a number of extremely bright Finnish students in recent years – but Alex was one of the most outstanding." Stubb's thesis was called Flexible Integration and the Amsterdam Treaty: negotiating differentiation in the 1996–97 IGC.

Early career

Between 1995 and 1997, Stubb was a researcher at the Finnish Foreign Office, and then at the Academy of Finland from 1997 to 1999. In 1997 he began to work also as a columnist.

From 1999 to 2001, Stubb was a researcher in Finland's representation to the European Union in Brussels, and a member of the Finnish government's delegation to the intergovernmental negotiations for the Treaty of Nice. In 2000, he became a professor at the College of Europe. Following the IGC's conclusion in 2001 he became an adviser to the President of the European Commission (then Romano Prodi) and a member of the Commission Task Force on the European Convention. In 2003 he returned to Finland's representation to the EU as a special expert and to the intergovernmental negotiations, this time for the European Constitution. When that ended in 2004, he stood for the National Coalition Party in the election to the European Parliament.

Wife and children

Stubb lived in Genval, Belgium, with his wife, Suzanne Innes-Stubb, who is a British lawyer, until they moved to Tapiola, Espoo. She works for the media group Sanoma. They have two children, a daughter named Emilie and a son called Oliver Johan.

Sports enthusiast

A "confessed sports nut", Stubb regularly competes in marathons and triathlons and has finished Ironman Triathlons. In his 2012 Frankfurt Ironman, he competed with "Iron Birds Finland", a team of 18 people competing to support leukemia research. In Stockholm Ironman in 2013, Stubb's time was 9:55'47. Stubb ran his marathon record, 3:11:24, in the Berlin Marathon in 2014.

European Parliament (2004–2008)

Stubb served as an MEP for Finland from 2004 to 2008. He was elected in 2004 with 115,225 votes (the second highest number of votes in Finland for that election) as a member of the National Coalition Party. As that party was a member of the EPP, he sat in the European People's Party-European Democrats group. During this time he became one of the most well-known members of the Parliament.

Stubb was a member of the Committee on Budgetary Control and a vice-president of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection. He was a substitute member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee (as of August 2007).

In 2006 he wrote a report for the Parliament on the EU's interpretation costs, which was adopted by the Parliament. He called for greater awareness of the costs of translation, which he calculated as 511 million euros in 2005 for the Parliament, Commission and Council together. Despite the costs and the need for some changes, he underlined that multilingualism is one of the EU's main assets.

Stubb was Vice-President of European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights.

Minister for Foreign Affairs (2008–2011)

On 1 April 2008, Stubb's 40th birthday, the Finnish government announced that Stubb would be appointed as its new Minister for Foreign Affairs following a scandal surrounding his predecessor, Ilkka Kanerva. Stubb was sworn in on 4 April. The decision to appoint him was unanimous and his seat in the European Parliament was taken up by Sirpa Pietikäinen, a former environment minister.

On his appointment, Stubb was described as a competent politician and a supporter of Finland's accession to NATO, stating that he does not understand Finland's non-alignment policy.

In July 2010, Stubb invited the head of Al-Jazeera and former President Martti Ahtisaari to discuss about the role of media in conflict resolution. In October 2010, Stubb visited the Middle East and discussed the Middle Eastern conflict with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In 2010 Stubb and Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt proposed the European Institute of Peace. They developed a joint non-paper that was addressed to EU High Representative Catherine Ashton. They referred to the limits of traditional diplomacy and emphasised the added value that capacities beyond those available to high-level decision-makers could have. At the same time, the idea of a European Institute of Peace gained increasing attention among members of the European Parliament (MEP) and was particularly supported by German MEP Franziska Brantner and French MEP Alain Lamassoure. The institute was founded in 2014.

In 2011 when Stubb was Foreign Minister, leaked diplomatic cables from the US embassy in Helsinki released by Wikileaks stated that Jori Arvonen, Senior Political Adviser to Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, had predicted that the National Coalition Party would aspire to lead Finland to NATO during the next parliamentary term.

Stubb brought attention to issues of disabled people. In 2010 Stubb and Finnish sign language rapper Signmark - who had become the first deaf person to sign a recording contract with an international record company - worked together to organize Silent Shout event to support sign language speakers. Stubb and Signmark also later collaborated for bringing attention to disabled people in international forums.

Stubb does not believe the President of Finland needs to attend meetings of the European Council in addition to the Prime Minister. Jyrki Katainen, the Finnish Finance Minister and chairman of National Coalition Party, supported Stubb stating he was surprising, courageous and that he "puts a smile on one's face".

As the Foreign Minister of Finland, Stubb was the Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe from 5 April 2008 to 31 December 2008. The Russian-Georgian war occurred during this period, and OSCE brokered an agreement to send military observers to the area.

In January 2011 Stubb and EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton worked together to help hundreds of beaten and imprisoned opposition activists in Belarus.

In February 2011, Stubb expressed hope that power in Egypt will be transferred to a democratically elected government as fast as possible and without violence.

Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade (2011–2014)

In 2011 Stubb stood for election to the Finnish Parliament for the first time and was elected MP. He was the second-most-popular candidate in the election, in which the National Coalition Party became the largest party. In the government negotiations the Foreign Affairs ministerial portfolio went to the Social Democrats. Stubb became Minister for Europe and Foreign Trade in Jyrki Katainen's cabinet.

During the crises in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine Stubb argued that money should be used as a force for good in geo-political relations, stating: "As I have said before, money is the best peace mediator“ and “Money should be given the Nobel Peace Prize”. (As Prime Minister he would later change his stance after further escalation in Eastern Ukraine, describing EU's sanctions against Russia necessary.) Stubb stated that the sanctions against Russia won't be removed until Russia has met the requirements set by the EU.

Prime Minister (2014–2015)

When Jyrki Katainen stepped down as Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Coalition Party, Stubb was elected as party chairman in June 2014 over his two rivals, Paula Risikko and Jan Vapaavuori. He formed a five party government coalition, and was officially appointed Prime Minister by President Niinistö on 24 June. One of the challenges the new Prime Minister faced is the relationship between Finland and neighboring Russia. This has always been a difficult issue for Finland, as it affects Finland's willingness to become a NATO member. The recent crisis in Ukraine as well as the dispute over free trade between Russia and Finland has made the issue thornier.

In November 2014, Stubb organized Northern Future Forum, a meeting of Prime Ministers of Northern Europe, in Startup Sauna in Aalto University campus.

In March 2015, Stubb invited companies and officials to an event to discuss industrial Internet and Internet of Things.

In the election held in April 2015 Stubb's National Coalition Party lost its status as the largest party, coming in as second in vote share and third in seats. Coalition negotiations began on 8 May between the winning Center Party, Finns Party and National Coalition Party. He resigned from the office days after the election and left office on 29 May 2015.

Minister of Finance (2015–2016)

Stubb was appointed Minister of Finance on 29 May 2015 by newly elected Prime Minister Juha Sipilä. Stubb has demanded "structural reforms, structural reforms and more structural reforms". In November 2015, Stubb said at the Finnish Parliament that about 90 percent of the Finnish authoritatives supported introduction of administrative registration. However, it was revealed that in reality only about 10 percent of them supported it.

Stubb's term as Minister of Finance drew criticism due to his perceived insensitivity towards the effects of the spending cuts he introduced, which affected the Finnish welfare state and public education system. An instance of Stubb and Sipilä bumping fists after the end of a conference that announced a deal between Finnish trade unions and the Confederation of Finnish Industries was interpreted as a sign of mockery towards the trade unions.

Partly as a result of Stubb's gaffes, in spring 2016, MP Elina Lepomäki and Minister of Interior Petteri Orpo announced that they would challenge Stubb in June's party conference. On June 11, Stubb lost the election against Orpo, who became the new leader of the National Coalition Party. Orpo soon announced that he would take Stubb's seat as the Minister of Finance. In return, he offered Stubb the role of Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade, but Stubb declined and decided to continue as a Member of Parliament.

After politics

On 15 June 2017, Stubb was chosen as the Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, after the previous representative from Finland Jan Vapaavuori had vacated the seat. He left his duties in the Parliament on 30 July 2017 in order to assume his new position.

Stubb is also expected to assume the leadership of the Crisis Management Initiative, non-governmental organisation that works to prevent and resolve conflicts. The current leader and founder of the organisation, Martti Ahtisaari, has nominated Stubb as his successor, but the final decision will be made in Autumn 2017.

Political views

Stubb is a proponent of deepening European integration. In 2008, when he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stubb gave a speech, in which he argued in favour of the EU taking an active role in international politics. He noted that while the EU is the world's largest economy, it is not a superpower but a regional soft power. In 2014, when running for party leadership, he described himself as an "academic federalist", though "in practice a functionalist" with regard to the EU. Stubb, for example, opposes eurobonds. He also insisted that he is no longer the "pure federalist" that he used to be when he was a researcher. Stubb has expressed his support for Turkey's EU membership. Stubb believes Finland should apply for membership of NATO.

Stubb is seen as a representative of the National Coalition Party's liberal wing. He has characterized himself as a "liberal" and "moderate liberal". Stubb wants to bring about a "more positive way of doing politics". He believes everyone should be appreciated and respected even when there are disagreements. He supports same-sex marriage and has been the patron of Helsinki's Pride parade. He supports multiculturalism and believes that increasing immigration is necessary. Stubb believes that the most important political divide in modern politics is that between the supporters (like himself) and opponents of globalisation.

In November and December 2015 Stubb got himself in the middle of a scandal when he was accused of lying to Finnish Parliament not just once but consistently and deliberately. In November Stubb had said to Parliament that 90 percent of the experts who had given a statement, were supporting government's pact to make it possible for Finnish to own publicly listed companies' stock through nominee accounts. The real number was 10 percent, which was the very opposite Stubb had said. One of the many Members of Parliament who criticized Stubb was Eero Heinäluoma, who told that Finance Minister Stubb had lied to Parliament also in other issues in several times, and this was deliberate.

Other work

An active columnist, Stubb has stated that he has "always been of the opinion that matters must be discussed openly and honestly". Since his professorship at the College of Europe, Stubb has published 16 books, dozens of academic articles, and hundreds of columns. In 2016, Stubb started to write columns for Financial Times.

Stubb maintains a blog. He is also one of the most active Twitter users among European leaders. He has co-authored an e-book in Finnish about what to do on Twitter.

His book Alaston totuus ja muita kirjoituksia suomalaisista ja eurooppalaisista – The Naked Truth and other stories about Finns and Europeans (ISBN 9789510351758), a collection of his columns for the Finnair in-flight magazine Blue Wings, was published in a bilingual Finnish–English edition by WSOY in 2009.

Stubb has received the Schwarzkopf Foundation prize.

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