This report gives an overall picture of multilevel-governance in the field of integration, good relations and interculturality in Finland, and discusses also the needs to develop it.
The first two chapters of the report present the key concepts and definitions, the historic origins of the approach of multi-level governance, and the Council of Europe and European Union standards and recommendations on it.
The third chapter presents the current state of things and the existing mechanisms of multilevel governance in Finland. It presents the Finnish governance model, which has three layers (state, region and municipality), and analyses how the elements of multilevel-governance are treated within Finnish legislation and existing cooperative structures. In addition the chapter describes the concepts used in the field of integration, mainly the approach of a policy for ‘good relations’ in the Finnish context.
The fourth chapter presents models and good practices of multilevel governance from other European, mainly Nordic countries and also the Nordic co-operation in the field of integration policy.
In the final analytic chapter, the report focuses on a policy case by analysing the Finnish government’s recently published statement to Parliament on promoting equality, gender equality and non-discrimination, through the lens of the eight crucial elements of multilevel governance. The report draws a list of both general and policy-specific recommendations on how to build multilevel-governance structures during the implementation phase of the Finnish government’s statement.