Aktion Österbotten - Leader - LAG work in Finland in a nutshell

There are altogether 55 local action groups (LAGs) in Finland. These are funded from four different programmes: 25 groups receive funding from the Community initiative LEADER, 19 are funded from the Regional Rural Development Programme (ALMA), six from the Objective 1 Programme, and seven from the national programme for local initiative POMO.One group is funded from both ALMA and the Objective 1 Programme.

Map over Finlands 55 local action groups (opens pdf-document in new window)

The principles for the work of the LAGs are the same independent of the source of funding.The main features and principles of the Finnish LAGs are:

The LAGs are registered associations which are open to all local people and organisations.
The Boards of the LAGs are based on tripartition: a third of the members represent the municipalities, another third the local organisations (associations of entrepreneurs, village associations, etc.) and a third consists of individual local residents.The requirement that the Board members must change at certain intervals must be written down in the rules of the associations to ensure that different views are considered and new people get involved.
All LAGs have drawn up a development plan in cooperation with the local residents and organisations. The plan is implemented mainly through development and business projects.
Municipalities are committed to LAG work and they contribute 20 per cent of the public funding. Each LAG negotiates on this local public funding.
The LAG and the Employment and Economic Development Centre grant the EU, State and municipal funding by one project decision.The applicant is responsible for arranging the private funding.
The decisions on projects are made by the LAGs and Employment and Economic Development Centres (T&E Centres).The LAGs assess the feasibility of the projects while the T&E Centres are responsible for the legal aspects.
All LAGs have the chance to participate in international projects and fund these.
The Village Action Association of Finland operates as the National Network Unit, serving all the Finnish LAGs.

The LAGs have a certain number of hired staff to manage and coordinate the practical operations, such as training, communication and activation.The LAGs assist the applicants and project implementers in the preparation and implementation of the projects and in contacts with different authorities. On average the labour force employed by the LAGs corresponds to 1.8 man-years.

The area covered by the LAGs varies from 1,000 to 49,000 square kilometres. The number of people living in the territory of the smallest LAG is 14,000 while about 80,000 people live in the territory of the largest one.The average population covered by one LAG is 41,000.

The total public funding for the Finnish LAGs in 2001-2006 is estimated at 220 million euros.The EU contributes 85 million euros and the State funding totals 90 million euros. In the LEADER and POMO Programmes 35 per cent of the funding should come from private sources.A certain amount of private funding is also required in the Regional Rural Development Programme and Objective 1 Programme. On average the funding of one LAG for six years totals 3.9 million euros.

The number of projects funded by the LAGs by the end of 2004 was 4,700 and during the whole period about 7,000 projects will be implemented. About 80% of the projects are development projects and 20% of the projects have concerned aid for enterprises. The number of international projects is 50, which is only one per cent of all projects.

All LAGs may finance development projects and projects concerning enterprises which are connected to farms. In addition to development, support may be targeted to building, purchasing machinery and implements, training, and wage expenses when starting up an enterprise. LEADER groups may also support other small rural enterprises (including those with no connection to farming), provided that these employ less than five AWU, and training for all local residents.The content and objectives of the projects vary a great deal. Many of them concern the development of villages, tourism, cooperation, activating, young people, culture, and enterprises.

In Finland the decision-making on the projects has been divided between the LAGs and the Rural Departments of the Employment and Economic Development Centres.The LAGs assess the feasibility of the projects while the T&E Centres consider the legal aspects. In practice the LAGs decide at their Board meeting which projects they would like to finance, and the T&E Centre checks that the projects comply with the relevant legislation.The T&E Centre may refuse the financing only if the project violates the Finnish or EU legislation.The T&E Centre may not decide to grant funding for a project which has been rejected by the LAG.

The Employment and Economic Development Centres (T&E Centres) represent the State administration on the regional level.There are 15 T&E Centres which consist of the Rural, Employment and Business Departments. Each T&E Centre employs about 2,000 people. About 25 of these work on matters related to LAGs.

All Finnish LAGs may participate in international projects and finance these, provided that the project to be funded has been approved by the LAG or similar group in the country concerned. Finnish LAGs may cooperate with all European LAGs independent of the programme from which they are funded or the selected themes. In the new Member States or candidate countries the partners may be local groups which are only getting started, and these may also approve the projects.

Finnish LAGs may contribute only their own share of the project funding, and the LAGs operating in other countries must finance their own shares.The project must win preliminary approval in all countries involved before the Rural Department of the T&E Centre can approve the project for the part of Finland. Each programme has a specific application form, which is used for international projects as well.The rules for the application procedure and decision-making and the support levels are the same as in other projects. In the case of international projects the financial contributions, schedules and distribution of the responsibilities must be written down in an agreement to be approved by all parties involved.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will be happy to give more information on the LAGs.

Please visit our Internet pages at www.mmm.fi/lag (English) or contact us by e-mail at lag@mmm.fi.

You may also contact
Mr Eero Uusitalo (Chairperson of the work group for the LAGs),

Ms Salla Laukkanen (LEADER)
Mr Risto-Matti Niemi (POMO+)

Mr Ari Lindqvist (LEADER and POMO+)

Ms Marjatta Koskinen
Ms Raisa Ikonen (Objective 1 and Regional Rural Development Programme).