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JOURNAL OF NORDREGIO 1 – 2004 • Volume 1 March No. THETHE ADDEDADDED VALUEVALUE OFOF THETHE STRUCTURALSTRUCTURAL FUNDS:FUNDS: A NORDIC PERSPECTIVE p.21 REFORMREFORM OFOF DENMARK’SDENMARK’S LOCALLOCAL AUTHORITYAUTHORITY STRUCTURESTRUCTURE How many counties and p.7 municipalities should Denmark have in the future? CONTENTS No. 1 March • Volume 1 – 2004 3 EDITORIAL NEWS 4 IN SHORT RIGHT NOW 6 NEED FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM IN DENMARK FEATURE 7 REFORM OF DENMARK’S LOCAL AUTHORITY STRUCTURE 13 370 YEARS OF GOVERNANCE COMING TO AN END? 15 REGIONAL GOVERNANCE – TRENDS, MODELS AND THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN NORWAY 18 TRANSNATIONAL CO-OPERATION – AN INSTRUMENT FOR ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING AND SOCIAL CAPITAL BUILDING 21 THE ADDED VALUE OF THE STRUCTURAL FUNDS: A NORDIC PERSPECTIVE JOURNAL OF Journal of Nordregio is owned and distributed by the Nordic Centre for Spatial Development (NORDREGIO). NORDREGIO The journal appears quarterly and is distributed free of charge. All articles express the views of their authors. HALLGEIR AALBU Director Subscription: [email protected] JON P. KNUDSEN Editor Copyright © Journal of Nordregio CHRIS SMITH Language Editor MARGARETA DAHLSTRÖM Book Reviews Editor ISSN 1650–5891 ADRESSES: NORDREGIO JON P. KNUDSEN MARGARETA DAHLSTRÖM Box 1658 Espevik Nordregio SE-111 86 Stockholm NO-4780 Brekkestø Box 1658 Sweden Norway SE-111 86 Stockholm Tel. +46 8 463 54 00 Tel. +47 37 27 56 90 Sweden Fax +46 8 463 54 01 E-mail [email protected] Tel. +46 8 463 54 00 Fax +46 8 463 54 01 www.nordregio.se frontpage photo: photobank NORDIC COUNCIL OF MINISTERS Nordregio is a centre for research, education and documentation on spatial development, established by the Nordic Council of Ministers. 4505 www.osigraf.no JOURNAL OF NORDREGIO EDITORIAL 3 This is remarkable as it contrasts the fragmented municipal structure unable CH-CH-CH- current discussions in Denmark, to conceive and integrate policy sche- Finland, where such a regional test case mes on a broader regional scale. is going to be set in place in Kainuu This warning should be heeded in CHANGES… next year, and in Norway where the the other Nordic capitals as well where debate on the regional administrative national policies are not too precise, to systems lingers on nurtured by a recent put it gently, concerning the tasks of governmental report on the regional regional planning. effects stemming from broad sectoral policies (Effektutvalget). The Norwegian In the end, changes can occur in report is primarily technical in nature many ways. To think, describe and even though it does nevertheless point to the dream them may seem easy, but to set need for a strengthening of regional them into practice will often prove hard David Bowie was certainly not com- menting upon the present develop- Proposing six models to alter the traditional county and municipal ments in Nordic administrative thin- structure of the country, the commission has stuck to its professional king when he wrote his famous song guidelines and left the politics to the politicians. on the fluctuating aspects of life in general, but the odd title is nevertheless the most striking common denomina- tor to describe this winter’s Nordic dis- coordination in the administrative sys- as old habits, vested interests and syste- cussions on future regional administra- tem in order to enhance its overall per- mic obstructions all work in favour of tive practice. formance. More interestingly perhaps the proven solutions and inherited from a policy point of view is the fact that administrative patterns. Decades after The most salient case is of course that the report’s conclusions are going to be the last important municipal reforms in of Denmark; where the Structure processed by a national commission on the four large Nordic countries, there Commission (Strukturkommissionen) regional policy (Distriktskommisjonen) are inhabitants and voters longing for has stirred a debate that certainly will which is going to present its conclusions the old entities to be restored. In last until the elections in 2005 if not for in September. Norway as in Sweden some municipal longer. Proposing six models to alter divorces have been recorded recently to the traditional county and municipal One can thus ask whether or not these substantiate the case. structure of the country, the commissi- initiatives reflect more general tenden- on has stuck to its professional guideli- cies in respect of a need to maintain Administrative reforms may be about nes and left the politics to the politici- and monitor administrative systems meeting rationality with a fresh mind, ans. It will soon become obvious, as regardless of national context. Whereas but the affective side of it should never- was demonstrated when a similar com- recent efforts in many countries in theless not be underestimated. There mission proposed alternative adminis- Europe have been put in place to meet may, as Paul Simons claims, be fifty trative models in Norway in 2000, that the need for enhanced economic ways to leave your lover. But, as we all it is much easier to hatch a set of growth and regional innovation polici- now, most of them are for theoretical models than to implement them. es, the obvious need to overhaul the considerations or songwriters only. Though the political climate for impor- administrative system has either been In this landscape of prophesised and tant changes, it should be admitted, neglected or left in the conceptual debated administrative changes, it seems much riper in Demark in 2004 limbo of governance and partnership should be mentioned that the Icelandic than it was in Norway 2000. arrangements. processes of municipal mergers proce- In Sweden a commission on adminis- A recent Finnish experience exempli- ed according to a timetable not set by trative division of labour fies this dilemma. When the OECD ter- reports and commission, but a working (Ansvarsutredningen) at the end of ritorial report on the greater Helsinki practice of negotiations and referenda. 2003 presented a first report on possible region published its analysis last year, Is this, at last, something to be inspi- responsibility patterns in the regional the Finns as ever expected praise for red by? administrative system. One of the basic their advanced policy initiatives on inn- discussions undertaken by the commis- ovation and technological renewal. sion is whether the main responsibility Instead they where told that the for regional policy initiatives and coordi- Helsinki metropolitan region suffered nation should reside with the state or from bad management. Geographically the municipalities. The obvious third manifest social cleavages were growing, case, to identify a more politically potent while housing and other infrastructure regional level of activity, is curiously policies were not adequate et cetera. enough not even mentioned. The main problem was identified as a 4 IN SHORT JOURNAL OF NORDREGIO IN SHORT… cooperative political board be establis- value in supporting the development of hed that is capable of dealing with ques- the present regional centres program- tions concerning physical planning, mes into a more elaborated regional housing, transport, regional develop- centres policy. West Coast Growth Ambitions ment and relations between the metro- Following the nationally conceived regio- politan region and the state. The report Cooperation Even in the Future nal development scheme that was launc- recommends that a legal basis should hed by the Government last year, the four be prepared as an underpinning for the Having presented a preliminary report coastal municipalities of Holmsland, board’s operation. The practical coope- on the future of the Finnish regional Ulfborg-Vemb, Thyborøn-Harboøre and ration is going to take place, it has alre- administrative system on the 26th of Hanstholm have joined with regional and ady been proposed, in existing munici- February, the rector of the University of national authorities to present a develop- pal and regional bureaucracies and on a Lapland, Esko Riepula, prescribes the ment scheme to make these fishery- project basis, thus giving the chief future administration of the regional dependent communities more diversified municipal officers a key role in the daily policy measures to be kept on a coope- and thus able to meet future occupational operations. rative and project basis as was previous- needs. This is necessary, the mayors of ly the case. There is no need for buil- the municipalities argue, to spark growth ding new regional administrative struc- National Goals for Regional Policy in otherwise peripheral areas. tures, Riepula concludes. On the natio- Adopted nal level, though, he advocates a more Think-Tank on Future Growth On 15th January the Government concerted national administration of the regional development budgets suppor- The Minister of Economic and Business adopted a set of revised goals for the Affairs has commissioned a think-tank regional development policy field. ted by a regionally recruited national with a view to offering proposals and sce- Following already well-known paths of board charged with channelling the narios for coping with future economic project-organisation, two features various regional ambitions and policy growth and business development in should be marked here as being of par- inputs into the national process of poli- Denmark. Representatives in the think- ticular interest. Firstly the lessons from cy formation. thank come predominantly from the the Centres of Expertise and Urban Danish business community and are tas- Centres Programmes are combined in ked with considering the impact of globa- an effort to enhance the performance of lisation on the country’s economic life. important second cities, such as Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Cottages in the Coastal Periphery Kuopio, Lahti, Lappeenranta/Imatra Commission to Analyse Alternatives to and Vasa. Secondly special measures Social Security Contributions The Government has recently decided to were announced to strengthen the open up some peripheral coast areas for weak regions of the east and north, Following the recent compromise bet- new summer cottages.