"Governing Europe: The Status and Networking Strategies of Finnish, Estonian and German Regions in Brussels"

[From the introduction]. The paper is structured in three parts. Part I is meant to shortly synthesize how integration theory deals with sub-national actors. In part II we will discuss history and institutionalisation of regional and local level representations in Brussels and reflect on such issues as relations to national level actors, core functions, resources and staffs and their career paths. In part III, we will highlight qualitative differences in strategic foci and networking strategies of regional and local EU offices by discussing such issues as cooperation and lobbying in EU institutions, differences between big and small/old and new member states, networking with other offices, current topics and most pressing problems. The research data stems from 12 structured interviews3, with the topics sent in forehand to the interviewees. All four German interviews were conducted by telephone and took between 45 and 60 minutes each. The Finnish interviews consist of four telephone interviews; each interview took about 40 minutes and one personal interview. The Estonian data stems from one personal interview and one telephone interview, both lasting 45-60 minutes. Instead of conducting a comparative analysis we are interested in the status of different actors and their strategies to position their ideas in the policy-making and law-making procedures by focussing on positions of the actors that are involved in those processes every day

Lokalna samouprava i zdravstvene usluge: kako ih možemo uskladiti?

The article discusses the concepts of centralisation and decentralisation in theory. There are various criteria that can be used to assess the advantages and disadvantages of decentralisation, and the paper will discuss these. In addition, empirical examples are presented. Next the article moves on to a case study of Finland. Finland has strong municipalities in the comparative European aspect, but there are problems too. There are plenty of small municipalities which cannot carry all the responsibility by themselves; hence the national government would like to see more amalgamations. The final section discusses in more general terms how local autonomy can be combined with coordination and which new options there are. Coordinating local activities in a different way and letting the local governments take greater responsibility for the inhabitants is not easy to achieve. Local governments need enough resources and power to comply with the requirements. The national and local government ought to play together, not compete with each other.U radu se raspravlja o pojmovima centralizacije i decentralizacije u teorijskom smislu. Prednosti i nedostatke decentralizacije moguće je procijeniti primjenom različitih kriterija, što se u radu i čini, te se navode empirijski dokazi. Slijedi studija slučaja Finske, čije su općine snažne u usporedbi s ostalim europskim zemljama, no ipak postoje određeni problemi. Državna vlast želi veći broj spajanja jer mnogo malih općina ne može snositi svu odgovornost i teret lokalnih službi. Rad završava raspravom o mogućnostima kombiniranja lokalne autonomije i koordinacije te se predlažu neke nove mogućnosti. Nije lako postići drugačiji način koordinacije lokalnih aktivnosti te dopustiti da lokalne vlasti preuzmu veću odgovornost za građane. Lokalnoj su samoupravi potrebna određena sredstva i ovlasti kako bi mogla udovoljiti zahtjevima. Državne i lokalne vlasti ne bi se smjele natjecati, već bi morale surađivati

EU and the Sub-national Government of Finland: Half-shut Windows of Opportunities

Author begins with a delineation of the Finnish system and thereafter moves on to analyze the dynamics of the system. The main research task is to assess the status of the regional councils in relation to the prevailing organizational structure. Although Finland has during the centuries divided into distinct regions these have not been used as a basis for either political or administrative structure. However, with the EU membership in 1995 the sub-national arena began to change, albeit within the limits of the prevailing organizational structure. The impact of the EU on the Finnish sub-national governance is considerable, but the impact intermingles with a number of domestic factors. Author is concluding that the tradition of sub-national governance in Finland is relatively weak. Therefore, the regions were more cultural entities than politico-administrative actors per se

Reforma lokalne samouprave u Finskoj

The article aims at evaluating the municipal amalgamation process as a way of reforming local government, by two criteria – efficiency in service provision and level of democracy. Those issues are applied onto a Finnish case study, as amalgamation is more common in Northern Europe. The author gives a review of amalgamation studies in the world and of the extensive evaluation reports of amalgamation reform in Finland. The paper examines amalgamation policy from two perspectives – from the instrumental or goal-oriented view and from the process aspect. The findings on the relatively high number of instances of amalgamation in Finland are the following: the main process-driving factors were political parties that mostly supported the reform and the underlying urge to construct larger entities which made municipalities take part in the process. The level of efficiency in the New, amalgamated municipalities is not necessarily higher, as efficient service provision can be found both in small and large municipalities. Efficiency is more determined by the dynamics of a municipal economy while the size of a municipality alone does not make a difference. As amalgamations change the nature of local political life they affect democracy both positively and negatively.Članak za cilj ima evaluaciju procesa spajanja lokalnih jedinica, jednog od načina reformiranja lokalne vlasti, putem dva kriterija – prema efikasnosti u proizvodnji usluga i prema unaprjeđenju demokratičnosti. Navedeno se primjenjuje kroz studiju slučaja Finske, s obzirom da je spajanje lokalnih jedinica mnogo češće u Sjevernoj Europi. Autor Donosi pregled studija spajanja lokalnih jedinica u svijetu i opsežnih evaluacijskih izvještaja reforme u Finskoj. Rad politiku spajanja lokalnih jedinica razmatra iz dvije perspektive – instrumentalne, one orijentirane na ciljeve reforme te iz procesnog aspekta. Nalazi o Velikom broju slučajeva spajanja lokalnih jedinica u Finskoj su sljedeći. Glavne faktore u procesnom aspektu čine političke stranke koje su većinom podržavale reformu te ishodišna potreba za stvaranjem većih entiteta zbog koje su lokalne jedinice iskoristile priliku. Efikasnost nije nesumnjivo unaprijeđena, s obzirom da se efikasna proizvodnja usluga može pronaći i kod malih i kod velikih lokalnih jedinica. Efikasnost je više određena dinamikom lokalne ekonomije, nego što isključivo Veličina lokalne jedinice čini razliku. Također, spajanja lokalnih jedinica mijenjaju prirodu lokalnog političkog života, što ima i pozitivne i negativne efekte na razinu njihove demokratičnosti

Organizational innovations of municipal Waste management in Finland and Norway

This empirical study compares the public policies of municipal waste management in Finland and Norway by analyzing organizational innovations of municipal waste management services in order to identify contributing factors of the organizational evolution and evaluate associated stakeholder concerns or implications. Our findings demonstrate that municipal waste management services have been extensively corporatized and regionalized, because municipalities have been too small entities to modernize waste treatment methods and respond to ambitious recovery targets set by the European Union. However, the organizational innovations have caused criticism concerning problems with democratic control, transparency, and fair competition

Europeanisation through the Back Door: EU Social Policy and the Member States

The article aims at broadly delineating the division of labour in social policy between the EU and the member states; in other words, at showing to what extent the social policy of the member states has been Europeanised. Our understanding of Europeanisation is broad. Europeanisation can be a rather subtle and invisible process rather than an abrupt modification of the national institutional architecture. The Union’s legal and juridical competences in the social area have been restricted to issues related to the single market, such as labour law, the free movement of workers, health and safety at the working place, and non-discrimination. In addition, the social OMC is a case of subtle and indirect Europeanisation influencing above all values, norms and ways of thinking about social policy. Moreover, national social systems are also influenced by other EU processes, such as the European macro-economic policy, the single market, the common currency, and the European Employment Strategy

Oblikovanje regionalne politike u Finskoj: Upravljanje mrežama ili puko vođenje odozgo prema dolje

The article analyses regional policy-making in Finland. More precisely the aim is to analyse the characteristics of a specific regional organisation, the Regional Management Committee (RMC). The organisation is a tri-party cooperative discussion arena and resembles a network. The article thus begins with an overview of the governance network theory. This section of the paper closes with discussing three specific features which are argued to be shared by governance networks: autonomy, significance and informal internal relationships. The empirical analysis thereafter discusses the characteristics of the RMC, with the help of a survey. The results of the analysis are the following: the RMC was found to have some characteristics of networks, but it did not fully correspond to the definition of governance networks. It seems that the RMC, though a network, suffers from the uneven distribution of power, this applies particularly to the social and economic partners. Thus, if the RMC is supposed to be a forum for open, interactive debate, the anagement of it should more clearly emphasize the network characteristics and aim at guaranteeing an open debate.U radu se analizira regionalna politika u Finskoj. Cilj je istražiti karakteristike specifične regionalne organizacije: odbora za regionalno upravljanje. Riječ je o tripartitnom forumu za suradnju i raspravu koji nalikuje mreži. Prikazuje se mrežna teorija i raspravlja o tri karakteristike upravljačkih mreža, samostalnosti, važnosti te neformalnim unutarnjim odnosima. Na temelju rezultata ankete na empirijskoj se osnovi raspravlja o karakteristikama odbora za regionalno upravljanje. Rezultati empirijskog istraživanja pokazuju da to tijelo ima neke karakteristike mreža, ali nema sva obilježja upravljačkih mreža. On pati od nejednake raspodjele moći, premda ima obilježja mreže, što se naročito odnosi na društvene i gospodarske partnere u odboru. Ako se želi postići da odbor za regionalno upravljanje bude tijelo za otvorenu i aktivnu raspravu, moraju se jasnije naglasiti i ojačati njegova mrežna obilježja te osigurati uvjeti za otvorenu raspravu