Finland Times

 

File picture of the Minister of Public Administration and Local Government, Henna Virkkunen. Photo – Lehtikuva.

The government has completed drafting a for merging certain urban areas. The draft is expected to be sent to the municipalities by the middle of January.

 

Minister of Public Administration and Local Government Henna Virkkunen on Saturday said the draft was finalised just before Christmas. The Ministries are likely to give their opinions on the proposed law next week.

 

The law will empower the government to work in areas with more than 100,000 inhabitants by merging certain municipalities.

 

The minister, however, straightway rejected a media report, which said the draft was scheduled to be finalises before Christmas but was delayed following resistance by two major components of the six-party ruling alliance.

 

According to a report published by Finnish language weekly Suomen Kuvalehti, the draft law was prepared earlier but was held back at the last moment and could not be made public following intervention from the Kansallinen Kokoomus (national coalition party) and Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen (social democratic party) .

 

“There was no schedule for publishing the draft law before Christmas because it was not complete until just before Christmas,” the minister said.

 

The chairs of the parliamentary groups of both the parties denied having any knowledge about the intervention.

 

“The matter was not raised before Christmas, it was supposed to be during this year,” said Petteri Orpo of the national coalition party.