Jyrki Katainen

Jyrki Tapani Katainen (born 14 October 1971) is a Finnish politician who served as the European Commission's Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness from 2014 until 2019.

He graduated from Siilinjärvi Senior High School in 1990.

He obtained a Master's degree in political science from the University of Tampere, spending one year at the University of Leicester as an Erasmus exchange student.

From 1990 to 2000, Katainen was Vice President of the Youth of the European Peoples Party.

He was a member of the Siilinjärvi municipal council in his first political position, in 1993.

He was elected member of the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) from the district of Northern Savonia in 1999, served as the vice-chairman of the party in 2001, and became the leader in 2004.

Jyrki Katainen has two children: Saara (born in 2005) and Veera (2009).

In addition to Finnish, Katainen speaks English, French and Swedish.

Katainen is an accomplished chef.

Katainen became involved in politics after a brief career in teaching.

Katainen was elected Vice President of the European People's Party (EPP) for a three-year term in 2006 and won the second election in 2009.

In the 2007 parliamentary election, Katainen's National Coalition was placed second.

Katainen became the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister in the new cabinet with the Center, the National Coalition, Greens, and the Swedish People's party.

As the Finance Minister, Katainen noted that Europe's leaders must do more to prepare voters for “exit strategies” and noted that "it is politically difficult but we have no choice. We have to do painful things in the coming years when economies begin to recover."

Katainen was previously Prime Minister of Finland from 2011 to 2014 and chairman of the National Coalition Party from 2004 to 2014.

He was succeeded by Alexander Stubb as chairman of Finland's National Coalition Party.

Following the parliamentary election held on 17 April 2011, Katainen was elected Prime Minister by the new parliament and assumed office on 22 June 2011.

His centre-right National Coalition Party became the largest party for the first time in the history of Finland.

Following government-forming negotiations, Katainen was elected Prime Minister by the Finnish Parliament, and his government of six parties (National Coalition Party, Social Democratic Party of Finland, Left Alliance (Finland), Green League, Swedish People's Party of Finland and Christian Democrats (Finland) ) was formally appointed by President Tarja Halonen on 22 June 2011.

In November 2012, the government elected not to have Finland to join the team of EU countries that proposed a financial transaction tax.

This was a reportedly difficult issue for the six-party government because three of the parties favored the tax.

Katainen's views regarding the demise of Nokia may have been controversial in the international arena, however, the company has long been part of Finland's national fabric, making it difficult to view the issue from alternative perspectives.

As Prime Minister, Katainen encouraged investment in Finland, in part because of the country's excellent education system and political stability.

He also encouraged the involvement of universities and higher education institutions in civil society in order to increase the country's competitiveness in the national arena.

According to Katainen's blog there was hope in the future for Finland's economy.

For example, he highlighted Google’s investment of about 800 million Euros in Hamina, Russian data center Yandex’s investment in Mäntsälä and Microsoft’s plans for investing about 250 million in Finland.

But he noted that Finland was still losing more jobs than those that were being created.

In August 2013 Katainen invited participants representing political parties, interest groups and research institutes to a forum in Heureka science center.

The forum was designed to explore the broad structural changes needed to improve Finland's economy over the coming years.

In his speech (loosely translated to English) Prime Minister Katainen concluded that 'participants showed curiousness and commitment.

I believe the discussions will provide an excellent basis for resolving difficult situations.

We now need to take action and to address the structural reforms ahead.'

Finland's economic problems were apparent for many, but the government was forced to delay structural reforms because socialist parties in the six-party cabinet were opposed to the new measures.

In September 2013 the six-party cabinet laid out plans for reform.

However, Katainen warned that the reforms were not sufficient.

In November 2013, Katainen said "Finland needs more direct foreign investment to accelerate the economy and increase growth and employment. The government approved the strategy for attracting national investment last December. The strategy emphasis the ICT sector, including data centres, as a core area."

In his position as Prime Minister, Katainen recommended that European leaders rebuild the unity of the European Union because it was undermined by the euro zone debt crisis.

Speaking at a Reuters Euro Zone Summit, he noted that mutual resentment between citizens of the northern creditor states and poorer debtor countries may have fuelled euroscepticism and perhaps this may have posed a threat to the 28-nation bloc's unity.

After stepping down as Prime Minister, Katainen was elected as European Commission Vice-President in July 2014.

Katainen was born in Siilinjärvi, a town in Finland.