Finland Times

The chair of the Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee, Johannes Koskinen said that getting the reform ready during this parliamentary term is extremely difficult because the bill requires significant changes.

The Committee will still modify proposals if they are ready to be presented. The progress of the matter will be decided by the political parties.

Time is, however, running out because the parliament will go into recess in the middle of March, while the Parliament's Constitution Committee is calling for the substantial changes to be made on the bill.

According to the committee, the proposed reform does not sufficiently meet the constitutional requirements of democratic decision making.

The problems lie with the ability of municipal residents to influence decision making and funding responsibility of the municipalities.

Koskinen said that such a proposal would have required constitutional re-enactment. He added that the two-level model would be of enormous size.

"The problem has been detected with the implementation of democracy," said Koskinen, adding that voice of an individual municipal resident will not have much bearing in the upper level of Sote decision making.

The Committee does not give specific recommendations on what changes should be made.

According to Koskinen, the Committee's decision was unanimous.