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On 1 April 2023, the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia will launch a whistleblowing channel. The purpose of the channel is to highlight grievances and to guarantee fair and uniform treatment of all notifications. All private and public sector organisations employing at least 50 people are required by law to establish this channel. The introduction of the channel is based on the EU Whistleblower Directive and the national whistleblower protection act, which entered into force at the beginning of the year.  The internal reporting channel of the Regional Council of North Ostrobothnia is intended for the use of the staff of the Regional Council of North Ostrobothnia, and the reporting of misconduct is primarily made to that reporting channel. In certain situations required by law, notification can also be made to the central external notification channel of the Chancellor of Justice or directly to the competent authority. Through the website of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, applicants for project funding and the Northern Ostrobothnia … can also submit a notification to the voluntary notification channel.

The sustainability requirement strongly permeates society as a whole, all its functions and actors. Technical solutions alone are not enough for change. We need a new way of living, values and ways of thinking. We need a cultural sustainability breakthrough. How can culture concretely respond to the ecological sustainability crisis? What role can culture play in the green transition, ecological reconstruction and strengthening democracy? How is culture part of the solution in Northern Ostrobothnia? These big questions will be discussed at the Cultural Forum on 23 March 2023 at Oulu Music Centre. The theme of the day is Sustainability from Culture to Northern Ostrobothnia. A number of cultural operators, artists and researchers have already taken up the challenge of the sustainability transformation. One of them is Pauliina Latvala-Harvilahti, docent of cultural heritage, who belongs to the research community of the House of Science and Hope in Helsinki and to the Suotrendi research group of the University of Eastern Finland. He explores the group with swamps…

Government-produced employment and business services will be transferred to municipalities at the beginning of 2025. The Act was approved by Parliament in plenary session on 1 March 2023. - Municipalities can now take action, i.e. discuss and agree on employment areas. Some discussions have already taken place in the municipalities of the region," says Jouni Korhonen, Project Manager of the TE2024 project of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia. Korhonen points out that municipalities have long proposed the transfer of state-produced TE services for their own implementation. The reform offers municipalities the opportunity to plan and implement employment management services close to private and corporate customers. Municipalities are in a hurry The Municipalities have been waiting for the Parliament's decision. The entry into force of the Act means busy times for municipal decision-makers. They have to solve big things. Municipalities must establish employment areas on the basis of three different criteria: New employment area…

The application period for the AKKE grant of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia for the period 1 November 2022 - 28 February 2023 ended. Fifteen applications were received by the deadline. A total of about one million euros was requested for funding.

The second round of applications for ERDF projects for the 2021-2027 programming period of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia ended on 28 February 2022. Only specific objectives 1.3, 2.2 and 3.1 were open in the closed call. By the deadline, 35 applications were received by the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia. A majority of 22 applications were for SME growth and competitiveness under Specific Objective 1.3. Six applications were received under Specific Objective 2.2 and seven under Specific Objective 3.1. The applications sought funding from the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia totalling approximately EUR 11.23 million. The next call for applications for the 2021-2027 programming period is planned to open in March/April 2023 and is a JTF-funded call for projects under Axis 7. Check out this link to JTF funding.

Speaking at an organisation event on 21 February 2022, Member of Parliament Katja Hänninen encouraged organisations to engage in long-term, systematic and active advocacy work. In order to be effective, organisations need to take into account some key issues. It's good to be on time with your goals. It is worth following what matters are coming up for preparation and actively highlighting important points of view for your organisation. It is good to find out who the responsible persons are and target the message to them. Katja Hänninen encouraged politicians to contact them boldly and offer them valuable expert help from organisations. The advocacy work is made more effective when the background work has been done well and things have been summarised as well-founded top goals in an easily understandable form. There are plenty of different advocacy and communication channels and it is good to use them in a variety of ways. ‘ Social …

 The Regional Assembly of Oulu Region has introduced an electronic recruitment tool, the nationwide Kuntarekry.fi service. The service includes a recruitment system and visibility on a job advertisement website specialising in the municipal sector www.kuntarekry.fi The purpose of the implementation of the service is to improve both job search and the processing of applications. In the future, jobseekers will be able to submit an electronic job application to the Regional Assembly of Oulu Region, receive information about the latest jobs via email and share information about the job vacancies of the Regional Assembly of Oulu Region, for example on social media. From the supervisor's point of view, electronic job application forms clarify and speed up the processing of applications and harmonise the organisation's recruitment communications.

The provinces of Eastern and Northern Finland have joined forces in response to the new threats facing the whole of Finland in a changed security situation. Eastern and Northern Finland needs investments in transport infrastructure and the main grid, which will speed up investments in the green transition, among other things. The counties have drawn up common Government Programme objectives to influence the vitality of the entire eastern and northern borders, especially the eastern border and northern regions. The aim is to improve the regional transport infrastructure and allocate EU funding fairly. There is a risk that a vitality vacuum in the east and north would drive the whole of Finland to the ever-increasing security challenges. Pentti Mäkinen, Regional Director of Etelä-Savo, points out that security of supply is built under normal conditions. According to Mäkinen, investments in Eastern and Northern Finland increase national security and are part of international crisis management. – It is up to us to do the whole of Finland.…

On 14 February 2023, a trans-European TEN-T conference was held in Warsaw, Poland, to discuss extensively the requirements for the development of logistics chains and the impact of the European security situation on the core network corridors. The essential function of the trans-European core network is to link European transport flows in both the north and south directions, as well as in the east and west directions. The Swedish Minister of Transport Andreas Carlson emphasised that Finland's and Sweden's membership of NATO places new demands on the northern areas of the core network and the importance of public-private cooperation in the development of the network. In his speech, Marius Skuodis, Lithuanian Minister of Transport and Communications, stressed the importance of alternative routes and the importance of the military mobility perspective. The conference focused extensively on the integration of Ukraine and Moldova into the European transport network. The European Commission's proposal links Ukraine to the core network corridors to secure grain transport. Presentation by the Commission on Ukrainian…

Two new chairpersons from Northern Ostrobothnia have been elected to the working groups of the Baltic Sea Commission. The Board of Directors of the Baltic Sea Commission made the election for positions of trust at a meeting held in Brussels from 1 to 2 February 2023. Sari Nurro, a member of the Regional Executive of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, was elected Chairman of the Maritime Working Group. Prior to his election as Chairman, Nurro has served as a member of the Maritime Working Group. Jari Leathernen from Haapajärvi, member of the Regional Council of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, was elected Chairman of the Arctic Stakeholder Group. Jouni Jussinniemi and Rami Rauhalla were former members of the Commission's working groups. Jussinniemi is in the Working Group on Transport and the Working Group on Energy and Climate in Peace. The working groups formulate and prepare views on the Baltic Sea Commission's policies in its fields of activity.   The Baltic Sea Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) is the central forum for international cooperation of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia. The Baltic Sea Commission's areas of activity are transport policy, maritime policy,…