Press releases

The organisation act of Northern Ostrobothnia in 2021 will reward the communal activities of the Rautio Village Association and the Rautio Trade Cooperative in order to maintain the vitality of the village. In late autumn 2020, the Rautio Village Association bought the village store's real estate after the store's operations unexpectedly ended. The operation of the village trade continued on a cooperative basis with more than 200 voluntary members. Renovation of the premises was also carried out mainly on a voluntary basis by volunteer work.Vesa Hihnalla, Chairman of Ruutio Village Association, emphasises the role of volunteers in the activities: “The project has required a huge amount of volunteer work from the villagers. Fortunately, there were also companies and construction professionals in the village who joined us”. In addition to the retail trade, there are also cafeteria, Posti, Veikkaus and pharmacy services. “The aim was to start developing services, not just returning them. Rautio village shop is more than just a shop,…

In its current composition, the last meeting of the North Ostrobothnia Regional Cooperation Group was held on 27 October 2021. At the beginning of the meeting, the revision of the performance agreement of the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for Northern Ostrobothnia was presented. The performance agreement is an agreement between the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment and the ministries that steer it for the period 2020-2023. This is a revision for 2022. For three ESF projects, the Provincial Cooperation Group supported three ESF projects to be funded under the Finnish Structural Funds Programme for Sustainable Growth and Jobs 2014-2020. The final decision on the financing of the projects is made by the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Northern Ostrobothnia. The projects supported are: Renewal, recovery and well-being at work through materialisation - OLLAPPA Applicant: Finnish Institute of Occupational Health Total cost estimate: 481 680 € Aid requested: 385 344 € Innovation competence for first aid for recovery (InnoAID) Applicant: University of Oulu Total cost estimate: 452 290 € Aid requested: 361 832 € KeMu - Agile change capability coaching programme Applicants:…

The secretariat of the Regional Cooperation Group for Northern Ostrobothnia met on 18 October 2021 to take stock of current issues in the EU's regional and structural policy programming period 2021-2027. The meeting began with a briefing on the state of play of the preparation of the EU’s regional and structural policy for the 2021-2027 programming period. A joint kick-off event for the Eastern and Northern Finland region will be held on 3 November 2021 and an info event for Northern Ostrobothnia on 10 November 2021. North Ostrobothnia's own training for applicants will start in November. In addition, a presentation was given on the revision of the performance agreement of the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for Northern Ostrobothnia for 2022. The meeting discussed the preparation of the needs for the unwinding and unallocated allocations for the 2014-2020 programming period for the IP area. In accordance with the Government Decision, all uncommitted and dissolved granting powers for the 2014-2020 programming period will be allocated to the region of Eastern and Northern Finland. EUR 7.4 million will be allocated to North Ostrobothnia. The Secretariat of the Provincial Cooperation Group supports the following projects for funding Sustainable Growth…

The Regional Government of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, elected for 2017-2021, held its last meeting on Monday, 11 October 2021. The Provincial Government decided to display the draft provincial programme for Northern Ostrobothnia 2022-2025 and the environmental report of the provincial programme. In this way, the preparatory work, which has lasted for a year, has progressed to the consultation phase. The Provincial Government of Northern Ostrobothnia decided to make the draft provincial programme for Northern Ostrobothnia 2022-2025 and the environmental report of the provincial programme available for viewing from 13 October to 11 November 2021. The preparation of the provincial programme began in October 2020. The programme has sought new thinking for regional and national regional development and a shift towards a more holistic strategic and phenomenon-based thinking model. This has been done with the aim of being flexible, proactive and quick to react to changes. The Regional Plan for the Energy and Climate Phase of Northern Ostrobothnia, which deals with the use of the entire region, will be drawn up in 2021-2023. The provincial government decided to start drawing up the phase-provincial plan and announce the plan…

The regional leaders propose that the preparation of the Planning and Construction Act be discontinued altogether. It is not possible to proceed with the draft law in its current form in a situation where the preparation has reached a political deadlock. The most appropriate thing is to completely suspend the preparation. The regional leaders of Finland state that the draft of the Planning and Construction Act (formerly the Land Use and Building Act) sent to the statements is problematic. This is an unfinished draft law that does not achieve the objectives set for it in the Government Programme, but is in direct contradiction to some of them. The draft law does not streamline planning processes and does not reduce bureaucracy, but, on the contrary, increases it. At the same time, the draft will increase the cost burden on municipalities. The draft would increase the number of designs, but its effectiveness would be weakened. From the point of view of the fiscal sustainability gap, the outcome would be counterproductive. The administration's work should be as … as possible

The Assembly of Members of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia has today elected a provincial council for the municipal term 2021-2025. The highest decision-making council of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia has 75 members, who are members of the councils of the municipalities they represent. The county council has 30 representatives from Oulu. Raahe received 4 representatives, Kempele, Kuusamo and Ylivieska each 3 representatives. The other municipalities each received one or two representatives. Compared to the previous period, there are one fewer representatives. According to the Treaty, each member will receive one representative for each 7000 inhabitants. The calculation is based on the population at the turn of the year preceding the municipal elections. The Centre Party continued to be the largest party The Centre Party held its largest party position in 27 seats in the provincial council on the basis of the results of the municipal elections. The National Coalition Party and the Finns Party both have 12 seats in the council. The Left Alliance has nine, the Social-Democrats …

The secretariat of the Northern Ostrobothnia Provincial Cooperation Group met remotely on 22 September 2021 to take stock of current issues concerning the EU's regional and structural policy for the 2021-2027 programming period and the EAFRD. The meeting began with a briefing on the state of play of the EU’s regional and structural policy programming period 2021-2027, as well as topical issues of the CAP27 plan. The Northern Ostrobothnia ELY Centre's ERDF and ESF project application period ended on 9 September 2021. A total of 16 applications were submitted. Applications were submitted for a total amount of €4,373,619. The Secretariat of the Provincial Cooperation Group supports the following projects to be funded under the Finnish Structural Funds Programme for Sustainable Growth and Jobs 2014-2020: Exploring the opportunities of the circular economy business in the economic area formed by Siikalatva and its surrounding municipalities Applicant: Municipality of Siikalatva The project explores the business opportunities of local recycling and recovery of waste and by-products generated in business, industry, commerce and agriculture in the economic area,…

At its meeting on 13 September 2021, the Regional Government of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia discussed, among other things, the Federation's economic and operational plan for 2022-2024 and the statement on the draft investment programme for the state fairway network.   The Economic and Action Plan 2022-2024 for municipalities for opinions in the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia has been prepared with a proposal for an Economic and Action Plan for 2022-2024 and a budget for 2022. The 2022 budget totals EUR 5 421 060 in operational revenue, which represents a decrease of 3,3 % compared to the 2021 budget. Operating costs amount to EUR 5 417 000, which is 3.3% less than the previous year's budget. The members' contributions will remain unchanged in accordance with the 2021 contributions. In the development of the county, the strategic goals of the union for 2022-2024 emphasise the physical and digital accessibility of the county, profitable business and competitiveness…

The Regional Councils of Eastern and Northern Finland require that an adequate appropriation intended to be permanent in the future be allocated to the state budget for 2022 for the activities of the police in sparsely populated areas. The 2022 draft budget puts the police in jeopardy in sparsely populated areas. According to the Ministry of the Interior, next year's budget framework will no longer be sufficient to maintain the current level of police activity, and without a significant increase, the police will have to significantly adjust their activities. This would mean significant personnel reductions and a drop in service levels, especially in the sparsely populated areas of Eastern and Northern Finland. The police received funding of EUR 4.1 million for the current year, which finally succeeded in increasing the number of police officers in sparsely populated areas. The same funding was also used to set up a group specialising in the fight against trafficking in human beings and to step up the fight against cybercrime. Funding for sparsely populated areas…

The Northern Ostrobothnia Youth Council held a meeting in Oulu on Wednesday 25 August. Oona Jukkola from Merijärvi was elected as the chairperson of the Youth Council. The number of vice-presidents was set at two. Leevi Sippola from Haapajärvi was elected as 1st Vice-Chair and Ossi Ruotsalainen from Kärsämäki as 2nd Vice-Chair. Young people want the right to speak and be present at the meetings of the provincial council The youth council discussed Sirpa Tikkala's pontoon proposal, which arrived at the meeting of the provincial council on 7 June 2021: ‘The Provincial Council encourages the Youth Council to propose the right to speak and to be present in the institutions of its choice’. The Youth Council decided to propose to its Presidium the right to speak and be present at the meetings of the Provincial Council. The North Karelia Youth Council, together with the Regional Council of North Karelia, is organizing a Summit of Regional Youth Councils, to which representatives from each Regional Youth Council and Regional Council would be invited. The summit will discuss the relationship between the provincial youth councils and the future welfare area and their tasks …