Cities and Dialogue on Governance in Europe

The large cities are in a special position in that they shoulder many responsibilities in service delivery. Cities have also natural ways of presenting their ideas to European discussion. In the nearest future, participation in the debate on institutional and functional reforms of European Union change will become an important arena of co-operation between Baltic cities.

Helsinki has initiated discussion on the EU reform of governance with some of its stakeholders. The discussion has focussed on the influence of European governance over the preparation of EU decision-making, especially from the perspective of local and regional administration.

It is remarkable that stakeholders can easily find new parallel ways and methods for influencing the EU decision-making process at an ever earlier stage. The stakeholders find ways of action by which they can exert a direct influence on decision-making. If the matter is considered from the viewpoint of citizens, then the local authorities should provide a channel for discussing the principles of governance in the concrete context.

On the other hand, the Commission emphasizes that an important element in democracy is that citizens participate actively in the preparation of decisions that concern themselves. In the Finnish cities, public servants have a crucial role in the preparation of EU matters at national level. Municipalities wish to be an arena for the presentation of a citizen's opinion.

According to stakeholder analysis, citizens need to have an impact on administrative questions through participation. Through that involvement, citizens want to secure an active role in the building of European institutions. For the time being, the discussion has proceeded from general European principles so that the public discussion has been half-hearted. When the discussion opens at the national level, concrete themes will come to the fore. At that point the public discussion taking place in the forums, in the internet and in the media may become brisker, as it expands to include both administrative models and governance.

The preparatory work of the authorities takes time and often intensive studies, too, of the complex circumstances of each matter. For the system to function well, it would be preferable that the responsibility for preparation is separated clearly from the decision-making. If the aim is to have a broad civic debate on governance, it should be anchored into very concrete issues, and the themes of the debate should be well prepared. It is cities' responsibility to deliver facts on these themes and enable open debates.

Mr Timo Aarrevaara
e-mail: Timo.Aarrevaara@uto.fi

Timo Aarrevaara from the University of Tampere has published several reports and articles on European Local Administration for the City of Helsinki.