Kainuun Liitto

Regional councils in Finland serve as regional development authorities, having two main functions laid down by law: regional development and regional land use planning. The office of Regional Council of Kainuu works for the advantage of Kainuu region, its municipalities and people. The main task regarding regional development is to draw up regional development plans and to coordinate regional development measures of its member local authorities and those of State regional administrative authorities. The plans and programmes of regional councils have mandatory legal consequences. Local and national government authorities must take account of the council's plans and programmes in their own operative and other action. The councils are the regions' key international actors and they are largely responsible for the EU's Structural Fund programmes and their implementation. Regional councils have the key role in promoting the region's interests. The regional council protects the region's culture and traditions in many ways by networking with the actors in the region and in the same fields. Each regional council in Finland is governed by a regional assembly and a regional board assisted by the council's office run by the director of the council. The Assembly of Regional Council is the regional council's highest political decision-making body. The regional council's preparatory, executive and administrative body is a board. The regional board is assisted by the regional council’s office, headed by a regional mayor, who acts as rapporteur at the board meetings and is the head of staff. The office of Regional Council of Kainuu is located in Kajaani and headed by Regional Mayor Riikka Pirkkalainen. During years 2005-2012, the administrative experiment of Kainuu took place and our office functioned as a part of a bigger organization, under the name Joint authority of Kainuu Region.