The Tasks of the Regional Councils:
Management of Regional Development Work
Finland's Regional Councils are statutory joint municipal authorities operating according to the principles of local self-govern-ment. The Councils operate as regional development and regional planning authorities and are thus the units in charge of regional planning and looking after regional interests. On the basis of municipal democracy they articulate common regional needs and work to promote the material and cultural well-being of their regions.
Regional Councils have also other tasks besides the statutory responsibilities. The Councils act as centres of development for the regions. They also pursue the interests of the region, its munic-ipalities, inhabitants and businesses and carry out research, planning and analyses. The Regional Council is also the organisation for cooperation between the various influences within the region.
Long-term Planning and Current Attitudes
The delegates on the decision-making bodies of the Regional Councils are influential political appointees of the member municipalities. They represent the political will of the inhabitants of the region according to the results of local elections.
The emphasis in the work of the Regional Councils is on both long-term planning and rapid reaction on current affairs. The Councils also implement and coordinate a number of various national and EU projects. The Councils have a well-trained, expert staff with an over-all view on regional development. Collaboration with special interest groups is a key working method.
The emphasis in regional planning and other regional development is on vision and strategic matters. Orientation towards the future is a key factor in the activities of the Councils the starting point being the Region's own resources and the opportunities to benefit from them.
Regional Scheme - Regional Development Strategy
Planning for a region covers a regional scheme, a regional plan and a regional development programme.
A regional scheme is the fundamental document when developing a region. It defines the objectives of the long-term development in the region. The key task of the Regional Councils is in fact to create a development strategy for the region, to maintain it and to revise it quickly when necessary. All the other plans and programmes regarding regional development, including implementing EU Structural Fund Programmes are derived from the above mentioned three documents.
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Responsibility for regional development
The Regional Councils are the authorities responsible for regional development under the Regional Development Act. The goal of this legislation is to promote regional development initiatives and regional balance and in so doing, to promote environmentally sustainable development.
The Regional Council takes care of planning the general regional policy and in part also of the implementation as well as the international contacts involved.
The Council therefore
- draws up regional development programmes and reconciles them with the regional development measures of the regional ad-ministration authorities,
- presents objectives for the development of regional infra-structure,
- develops the framework for business activity to generate new enterprises and new jobs within the region,
- reinforces the regional economy in every possible way,
- improves the occupational skills of the population.
The Council draws up plans and programmes in cooperation with State and local government and with businesses and or-ganisations within the region. When preparing programmes the following elements in the regional scheme are observed: development targets and strategies, regional and industrial objectives and the environmental impact of the programmes. In addition to its regional development work with legal effects also the Regional Council con-cludes programme agreements with the State, the business community and non-governmental organisations. Programme agr-eements present schemes for the development of the region in practice and define the financial responsibility of the signatories.
Regional policy can be implemented in different ways in differ-ent regions on the basis of these programmes. Ac-tivity is focused according to the requirements of the par-ticular characteristics of each region and this leads to specialisation and differentiation. Intensive interac-tion with the inhabitants, local authorities and sub-region-al units is an essential requirement for success.
The basis for regional land use planning is the Land Use and Building Act. The land use plan defines the use of areas needed for particular purposes and the principles of urban structure from the point of view of regional development. It provides guidelines for the member communities and for all other land use planning in the region.
The regional plan and the land use plan reconcile the interests of cen-tral government with the interests of regional and local government. They also harmonise the land use objectives with the aims of economic life and environmental control. Key issues in regional planning are man, nature and the built environment, its use and sustainable development.
The Regional Councils take care of international relations and international affairs connected with their work. Since Finland entered the European Union, the in-ternational role of the Regional Councils has expanded and international relations and interaction between different re-gions have become part of the daily routine. The Regional Councils are involved in developing EU regional policy and draw up the programmes required for the granting of support from EU structural funds for their own regions and in part they also implement them.
For taking Finland's special conditions into account, the Councils have emphasised the Nordic dimension in outlining the new EU regional policy. This means taking account of low population density and cold weather conditions when planning regional development programmes. The Nordic dimen-sion also includes cross-border cooperation with the Bare-nts Region, the Baltic Sea Region and Russia.
The foundation of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) at the beginning of 1994 formalised the representation of local and regional interests in the European Union. The Regional Councils propose their own candidates for membership and deputy membership of the EU Committee of the Regions. Many Regional Councils have their own permanent representations in Brussels in addition to the representation of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities.
Responsibility for regional land use planning
Key international functions
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Photo: Members and Deputy Members of the Finnish Delegation to the Committee of the Regions. |
The Regional Councils' representatives participate in the Council of Europe's Congress of Local and Regional Authori-ties of Europe (CLRAE) and its Chamber of Regions.
Quite a few Regional Councils are members of several European re-gional organisations. The most important are:
The Assembly of European Regions (AER), The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR), one of the oldest associations for special geographical areas and The Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), which promotes joint action between the regions for border areas.
International contacts are vitally important to a small cou-ntry like Finland. Besides traditional Nordic co-oper-ation, the field of international relations will grow further in conjunction with the enlargement of the EU and the intensification of cooperation with neighbouring areas Russia and the Baltic States, and the strengthening of the North-South cooperation.
Serving on a broad front
In addition to their statutory authority, the Regional Councils have a broad scope of non-statutory operations, which are defined and emphasised by the special characteristics of the region. These include:
- promoting the business community and tourism,
- developing and coordinating regional cultural activity, education and the preservation of local arts and crafts,
- marketing the region,
- improving the region's public services,
- taking environmental, traffic and housing affairs into ac-count in authority operations and other activities,
- presenting regional aims for creating a pleasant, high qua-lity living and working environment,
- carrying out research dealing with the region
- information society and information technology issues
Regional Councils - Financing and Organisation
Financing
Regional Councils are joint authorities formed and principally funded by their member municipalities. The annual membership fees are (year 2000) about 190 million FIM, in other words, about 37 FIM/inhabitant. For the statutory regional development and regional planning the municipalities receive a general state grant. The Councils receive an annual grant of about 100 million FIM primarily for the independent regional development of the business community, the so called regional development grant in the state budget. A fact is that the share allocated for the implementation of EU programmes has increased.
Organisation
The Assembly of the Regional Council
The Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the Re-gional Council. The Council of Varsinais-Suomi with 103 members is the biggest Assembly and East Uusimaa the smallest with 32 members. The member municipalities elect representatives to the Assembly for a period of four years, the time between local elections. The number of rep-resentatives and voting rights are laid down in the Cou-nci-l's charter on the basis of population numbers. The addition of § 86a in the Local Government Act means that the composition of the Assembly has to correspond to the political groups in the region. Moreover only Councillors of the member municipalities can be members in the Assembly of the Regional Council. As the equal rights between genders also need to be secured, it has been agreed in every Regional Council that the Assembly is elected every four years at a special municipal representatives’ meeting. The Assembly normally convenes twice a year.
Board of the Regional Council
The executive and adminis-trative body of the Regional Council is the Board. Its members are elected by the Assembly along party lines to be politically representative of the region. The biggest Board is the Board of Uusimaa (20 members) and the smallest South Carelia (9 members). The Boards convene at least once a month.
Office of the Council
The Office of the Regional Council assists the Board in its administrative tasks. The office is headed by a Regional Manager, who acts a s referendary at the meetings of the Board and is the head of other staff.
There have been very few changes in staff numbers, even though the number of tasks has increased, and the tasks have become more versatile and complicated these past years. The total number of staff is still about 600, of whom about 130 have short-term contracts and about 50 are employed by projects. In the biggest Council, i.e. in Uusimaa, there are 74 people, and in the smallest, i.e. Central Ostrobothnia, 10 people. The staff have an all-round education and extensive experience of their field. Over a half have an academic diploma and now every Council has made arrangements to improve the knowledge of languages to meet the demands of international cooperation.
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Photo: Executive Directors at one of their meetings. |