Regional Councils are joint municipal authorities formed and principally funded by their member local authorities. The annual membership fees are about 48.4 million euros (2010), or 9.25 euros per resident.
Local authorities receive some general central government transfers for their statutory regional development functions. The councils receive annually over 30 million euros of unallocated regional development funds allocated in the State budget primarily for independent development of the region's business activities. Unfortunately, the funds are to an increasing degree tied to the implementation of programmes agreed by the Government.
Organisation
Regional assembly
The assembly is the regional council's highest decision-making body. The Council of Varsinais-Suomi with its 100 members is the largest assembly; the smallest assembly has only about 30 members. The member local authorities elect representatives to the assembly for a period of four years, which corresponds to the election term. The number of representatives is laid down in the Council's charter on the basis of population numbers. Under section 86 a of the Local Government Act, the composition of the assembly must correspond to the proportion of votes exercised by the region's political groups. Moreover, only councillors of the member local authorities can become members of the regional assembly. As the equal rights between genders also need to be secured, regional councils have ensured that an assembly meeting the requirements set out in law is elected at a special municipal representatives’ meeting held every four years. As a rule, regional assemblies only convene twice annually.
Regional board
The preparatory, executive and administrative body of the regional council is the board elected by the assembly and representative of the region's political composition. The largest board with 20 members is that of the Uusimaa Regional Council; the smallest is in South Carelia (9 members). The board usually convenes once a month.
Regional management committee
The tasks of the regional management committee are laid down in the act on structural funds and the Regional Development Act. Its most important task is to prepare EU programmes and steer EU funds towards the implementation of the programmes. The committee also issues statements on the financing of different projects. In the field of regional policy, the committee's main task is to participate in the drawing up and implementation of a regional programme.
Office of the regional council
The office of the regional council assists the board in its administrative tasks. The office is headed by a regional manager, who acts as rapporteur at the board meetings and is the head of other staff.
The total number of staff of all regional councils is about 650, of whom some 100 have fixed-term contracts or work for projects. The largest council, that of Uusimaa, employs 65 persons, the smallest (Central Ostrobothnia) 16 persons. The staff are well-educated and have long experience of their field. More than half of the staff have an academic degree, and every council has provided language training for their staff to raise their skills to a level required for conducting international relations.