Good Democratic Governance serves as the foundation for delivering high-quality public services, responsibly managing resources, and involving citizens in decision-making processes at the local level. Striving to achieve this, Finnish municipalities are gearing up to embark on a path of self-assessment and citizen engagement, as they prepare for the first implementation of the European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE) in the country.

During an explanatory workshop on 21 September in Helsinki, the Council of Europe Centre of Expertise for Good Governance in collaboration with HAUS Finnish Institute of Public Management, will kick start ELoGE in Finland where international and Finnish consultants will introduce the benchmarking tool to the mayors, elected officials and their local administrative landscape.

Afterwards, the participating municipalities will start assessing their performance against the 12 Principles of good governance and provide citizens with a platform to evaluate their local government's performance, with the aim of identifying areas where the governance practices could be improved.

Local authorities able to demonstrate their compliance with the 12 principles will be eligible to receive the Label.