Pietikäinen sees the European Union should proceed towards a Europe of people, which guarantees the respect of human rights, equal opportunities for all, social inclusion and the access to high quality services. In her opinion, the Union needs to further involve organisations and citizens in the community decision-making process, from the preparatory phase of the work onwards. Also the Union should be more transparent. Pietikäinen states that the objectives and strategies, such as the Lisbon Strategy, are not enough. The Union would need an enhanced surveillance of the financial sector, obligations in terms of solvability as well as transparency in Europe and worldwide. She also supports reinforcing cooperation and negotiation procedures between employees and trade unions, in order to contribute to the stabilisation of growth. The future growth, in her opinion, spurs from investments in the education and research sectors, in particular in green business. When it comes to the environment, Pietikäinen states that political will is at the core of the environmental challenges: Europe should build an ecologically sustainable model in terms of way of life, transport, production and consumption, as well as the economic and legislative tools which will allow the shift towards this model. During her campaign for the 2014 European elections, Pietikäinen spent a total of €183,700, making her the biggest spender of the country’s 13 elected MEPs. According to a Finnish media report, a third of Pietikäinen’s budget was a bank loan, she contributed €49,000 from her own pocket and received €10,000 from the Trade Union Pro, Finland’s largest private sector union.
Member of the European Parliament
Pietikäinen has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2008. She first came to the European parliament to replace Alexander Stubb in 2008, and was re-elected in the 2009 European elections and 2014. In parliament, she is a member of the European People's Party Group. Upon entering parliament, Pietikäinen first was a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety from 2009 to 2012 and then vice-chairwoman of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection between 2012 and 2014. Since 2014, she has been serving on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. In addition to her committee assignments, she has been a member of the parliament’s delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China since 2009. In her capacity as alternate member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, she authored a report on organic farming in 2015 and served as rapporteur on the circular economy. Pietikäinen also serves as vice-president of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights; as board member of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals; as member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Children’s Rights; as member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Youth Issues; as member of the European Parliament Working Group on Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS and Development; as a vice-chairwoman of the cross-party Working Group on Fair Trade ; and as member of the MEP Heart Group and the European Society of Cardiology ). She is part of the Elie Wiesel Network of Parliamentarians for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities and against Genocide Denial as well as of the MEP Alliance for Mental Health. Pietikäinen served as rapporteur also for the proposal on funds for venture capital and social entrepreneurship, which became regulation 2017/1991, and for the regulation on sustainable investment, approved in first reading on March 2019.
In 2003, Pietikäinen was convicted of aggravated drunk driving after moving her car in a parking lot at midnight. She was fined, given a suspended prison sentence and banned from driving for five months.
