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Regional Council of Southwest Finland Content

regional council of southwest content

regional council of

southwest finland

International Southwest Finland

Region Mayor Savo

The tasks of the Council

Promoting interests

The funding channels

Europe Direct Regional Council of Southwest Finland www.varsinais-suomi.fi Ratapihankatu 36 | 20100 , FINLAND

Graphic design and photos: Antti Vaalikivi 5 regional council of southwest finland

The Regional Council of Southwest Finland creates cooperation over municipal and sector borders and leads the region’s actors towards shared objectives based on democratic decision making. The Regional Council is an influential actor in the region.

Southwest Finland is a competent and youthful region with good opportunities for studying. The cutting-edge branches are biological and medicine branches, ICT, food, marine and metal industries, agriculture, tourism and the creative branches. The Regional Council of Southwest Finland supports the important businesses and the growth of welfare for the inhabitants.

The archipelago of Southwest Finland is the world’s vastest with over 20 000 islands. The attracts tens of thousands of tourists every year. Southwest Finland has more summer cottages than any other region in Finland. We develop Southwest Finland to be a successful region, where the quality of living is the best in Finland. www.varsinais-suomi.fi

We develop Southwest Finland to be a successful region, where the quality of living is the best in Finland. 7 Southwest Finland

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Inhabitants 470 000 1. Aura 15. Oripää Municipalities 28 2. 16. Islands 22 000 3. The Island 17. Pyhäranta Languages: 4. 18. Pöytyä Finnish 418 200 5. 19. 6. 20. Swedish 27 000 7. 21. Salo Russian 4 500 8. 22. Estonian 3 300 9. 23. other languages 24 000 10. 24. Foreign citizens 16 500 11. 25. Summer cottages 48 600 12. Mynämäki 26. Turku 13. 27. Summer 14. 28. inhabitants 54 000 9 international Southwest Finland

The objective of Southwest Finland is to be an important nodal point in the Development corridor between and St Petersburg.

The Regional Council of Southwest Finland is an active participant in EUs Baltic Sea strategy in cooperation with others actors in the region. The City of Turku and the Council play an important part in the implementation of a collaboration concept, the so-called Turku process. The aim is to create cooperation in the Baltic Sea region and to improve the inter- action between Russia and EU through the process. The Council also participates in the activity of the Turku centre in the Finland house in St Petersburg.

Good prerequisites for improving visibility and cooperation in the Baltic Sea region are created through participation in international projects. The Council administrates and hosts the Central Baltic INTERREG IV A 2007-2013 programme and the following Central Baltic program 2014 - 2020.

The Regional Council of Southwest Finland, the city of Turku and the region’s universities have a shared lobbying office in Brussels. The office serves as the regions lobbyist in e.g. financial affairs and maritime politics. The office also arranges seminars and offers information services.

St Petersburg, Stockholm and the whole Baltic Sea region are important partners for Southwest Finland. 11 The council is a cooperation organization

The regional administration of Finland is made up of 18 regional coalitions. Southwest Finland is one of the largest and oldest. The Regional Council has experienced over 450 years of administration. The coat of arms, which was introduced by Duke John, dates back to 1557.

The Regional Council of Southwest Finland represents democratic, municipality-based ”The Regional Council administration. The Council represents emphatically the region’s own will of development in represents democratic, relation the state’s administration. municipality-based administration.” Regional development and the planning of land use are the Council’s statutory tasks. Being a regional promoter of interests is a third task. Representing the region in international relations is also statutory. The Council acts in close cooperation with municipalities, the economic life, non-governmental organizations and the state’s authorities. It is clearly a cooperation organization.

The Council also acts as an implementor of the European Union’s structure politics on its region and as the administrator of cooperation programmes in the Central Baltic region. These programmes make the Council an influential actor in this region.

The Regional Council of Southwest Finland was born as a result of a fusion of its preceding organizations in 1993. The Council is still an organization in development and is flexible in the administrative changes.

Looking ahead it is clear that cooperation tasks stretching over municipal borders need an organization like the Regional Council. The bureaucracy decreases by gathering the region’s authority tasks to one actor.

JUHO SAVO Region Mayor 13 The tasks of the Regional Council

The Regional Council of Southwest Finland is a federation of municipalities in the region. It functions as the region’s promoter of interests nationally and internationally. The Council is a regional development authority that makes funding decisions and develops the region strategically in cooperation with different actors.

The regional scheme shows the region’s desired development in a long-term perspective (20-30 years). The scheme is implemented through the regional programme and the regional land use plan. Every fourth year a regional strategy is made in Southwest Finland, which consists of the regional scheme and the regional programme. This document regulates other authorities in the region.

The Regional Council of Southwest Finland promotes cooperation between the region’s municipalities and cooperation with central stakeholders. The Council manages the regions international relations and coordinates the forecast of educational needs, traffic arrangements, water and waste management and the planning for the regional programmes for natural resources and the environment.

The administration of elected officials of the Regional Council of Southwest Finland cares for democratic decision making and directing. The Assembly and the Managing Board hold the decision making power. The members of the Assembly and the Managing Board are municipal councillors from their home municipalities. The strength of the political parties in the Assem- bly and the Managing Board corresponds with the elections results in the municipalities. The term corresponds with the municipal election term.

The Assembly is the highest decision making body in the Regional Council of Southwest Finland. It has 102 members and meets 2 - 3 times a year.

The Managing Board implements the decisions made by the Assembly. The Managing Board makes funding decisions and decides of matters that reach over municipal borders and have long-term effects.

The decisions are made by the Assembly and the Managing Board. 15 Promoting interests and cooperation

The success of the region is a result of good cooperation. The Regional Council of Southwest Finland promotes the region both nationally and internationally in cooperation with e.g. the region’s MPs, MEPs, and the parties’ district organizations, organizations of the economic life, universities, municipalities and media.

Important issues are regionalization, the traffic network, universities and educational affairs, the protection of the Archipelago Sea and the creative branches.

Municipal cooperation: The Regional Council of Southwest Finland is owned by 28 municipalities. Towards its owners the Council practices active dialogue, which aims to secure the municipalities’ vitality.

MP cooperation: There are 17 Members of Parliament from the electoral district of Southwest Finland. They form the cooperation group of the regions MPs and they meet once a month in the parliament in . The group visits different parts of Southwest Finland, gets to know current projects and listens to the opinions of interest groups.

Archipelago cooperation: The Nordic archipelago cooperation covers the archipelago parts of Stockholm and Uppsala provinces, the archipelago municipalities of the Åland islands and the archipelago parts of Southwest Finland and . The archipelago committee of the Council acts as the lobbyist of the regions’ archipelago.

Cultural cooperation: The task of the cultural committee is to strengthen the cultural identity of Southwest Finland and to develop a modern regional spirit.

The council cooperates with municipalities, MPs, political parties, organizations and universities. 17 funding channels offered by The Regional Council

Regional development funds Funding for regional development can be granted for supporting fixed-termed projects. The projects should support the operational guidelines of the regional programme. Regional development funding can be granted for 70 % of the expenses of the project. The application time for the development fund is continual. The funding decisions are made by the Managing Board.

ERDF-financing programme The Regional Council of Southwest Finland grants funding for projects from the European Re- gional Development Fund (ERDF). Typical projects are development and tourism projects that aim to develop the region, create employment and to improve the accessibility and the services of the region. The funding can be 70 % at the most; the self-funding part is 30 %.

Central Baltic INTERREG IV A programme The Regional Council of Southwest Finland has administered the Central Baltic INTERREG IV A programme during EUs programme period 2007 - 2013. Through the programme almost a hundred million euros have been granted for cross-border cooperation projects in the Baltic Sea region. During the following programme period 2014 - 2020 the Regional Council is ad- ministering the new Central Baltic INTERREG V A programme. The funding for the projects comes from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The projects funded through the INTERREG programmes should have partners from at least two countries from the programme area, and the cross-border cooperation should play a cen- tral part. The countries belonging to the Central Baltic programme area are: Finland (includ- ing the Åland islands), , and Latvia.

The funded programmes are related to environment, competitiveness and innovation or to increasing the regions’ attractiveness. www.centralbaltic.eu

Funding for projects is granted by regional development funds or EU funds. 19 Europe Direct Southwest Finland

A new addition to the Councils international activity is the open information service Europe Direct Southwest Finland, which is directed towards the citizens to share regional EU information.

From spring 2013 on Europe Direct operates in the lobby of the Regional Council of Southwest Finland (Ratapihankatu 36, Turku). It is a part of the information service network managed by the European Commission. The information services are one of the most important tools for EU to offer information about the EU to the citizens; especially about the rights of the EU citizens and the EUs focus areas e.g. the Europe 2020 growth strategy. Some of the tasks are to inform the EU citizens on a regional and local level and to enhance the citizens’ participation by organizing different happenings. The Europe Direct information service complements the Council’s role as an active EU actor and as a distributor of current EU information.

The information service is open to citizens during the opening hours of the Council and there is EU material to be collected, computers to be used and the chance to discuss with the workers.

Varsinais-Suomi

Europe Direct shares information about EU to the citizens.

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