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Sat, 12 Apr, 2014 12:12:28 AM FTimes-STT Report, April 12  File picture of Vaasa city area. Photo – Lehtikuva. The government on Friday agreed to put an end to the proposed plan for municipal merger in urban areas.
The government parties decided that the preparation of the widely criticised draft proposal would stop.
At the same time, the parties acknowledged that the forced mergers were not the right way to speed up the government reforms of municipalities.
The solution to drop the plan was deemed inevitable as it was associated with many challenges.
The government’s increased power over merger of municipalities would have been problematic from the perspective of the constitution, said Carl Haglund, the Minister of Defence and the leader of Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue (Swedish People's Party of Finland).
According to Haglund, the need for the merger was not deemed necessary after the Social Welfare and Health Care reform moved forward. The reform would be implemented by five strong regional providers, a responsibility that was previously obligated to the municipalities.
The approval of the plan, according to Haglund, would have been most difficult for his party and Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (Social Democratic Party).
The forced merger would have affected most the regions of Tampere and Turku.
Anna-Kaisa Ikonen, the mayor of Tampere, said the government's decision did not come as a big surprise. According to the mayor, most importantly other than forced mergers was the motivation to proceed on its own.
Tampere and seven of its nearby municipalities had come up with a two-tier model in which the municipalities were to cooperate, but at the same time maintain partial independence.
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