Wed, 04 Jun, 2014 02:56:42 AM FTimes-STT Report, June 4 The working group disclosed the proposal for future metropolitan in Helsinki on Tuesday. Photo Lehtikuva. Municipal merger liquidators for the first time on Tuesday presented a proposal for amalgamating three of the country’s biggest municipalities into a single entity.
The working group held a press conference on the future of the proposed metropolitan area at the Helsinki Government Palace.
Helsinki city is open to the idea of joining with other municipalities, but Espoo and Vantaa cities are against the plan which also includes combining with Sipoo and Tuusula.
Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen was delighted that finally a presentation of the proposal had been made. “For the past ten years we have had discussions on the future model of the municipality and this is the option that had not been on the table.”
The mayors of Espoo and Vanta, Jukka Mäkelä and Kari Nenonen, on the other hand, consider the proposal a risk. Mäkelä criticised the plan saying it would be expensive for the region. He said, “The organisation of services will become more expensive by about a billion euros in the whole region, if they are organised from Helsinki.”
According to Mäkelä, an ideal forced-merger proposal would have been a networked and poly-centric model.
Nenonen, in turn, warned that the municipalities involved in the merger plan have over a 100,000 employees. “The stages involved during the change will include huge operational and management-related risks,” he said.
The basis of the proposal, however, stipulates that the interest of the whole merged region will be prioritised before that of the municipality.
Although there is a strong opposition from Espoo and Vantaa, the proposal will be forwarded ahead.
A municipal merger liquidator, Mikko Pukkinen, said he would like to see the plan go ahead as, according to him, opposition to the proposal is nonexistent after the liquidators’ tour of the region.
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