After 30 years of discussions, Finland embarked upon the largest public administrative reform in its history in 2023 – with the creation of its wellbeing service counties.

Ensuring access to quality services at the local level, in a stringent economic situation and across diverse regional territories are among the challenges shared by many European countries. To tackle these issues, Finland prepared a reform introducing Wellbeing Services Counties in the country, for which the Finnish authorities requested the Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to help guide the reform and its challenges. In the context of the project final conference, the relevant results were presented, and a discussion ensured between various stakeholders, including high level representatives of the Finnish Ministry of Finance, DG REFORM of the European Commission, representatives of local authorities, experts, and national institutional partners. On this occasion, the Congress Secretary General also presented the European Label of Governance Excellence award to six Finnish municipalities that have demonstrated compliance of their work with the 12 Principles of Good Democratic Governance.

In the margins of the conference, Congress Secretary General Mathieu Mori held bi-lateral meetings with the Minister of Local and Regional Government, Deputy Mayor of the City of Helsinki, the Director of the Human Rights Centre, the CEO of the Finnish Association of Local and Regional Authorities, and members of the Finnish Delegation to the CoE Congress, to discuss pertinent issues where the Council of Europe can provide further support.

The conference was organised in the context of a joint Council of Europe – EU project “Delivering Good Governance and Balanced Local Economy in Finland” that aims to strengthen good governance at all levels in line with the Reykjavik declaration and the relevant Council of Europe standards.