At its meeting on 1 March in Helsinki, the Bureau of the Congress held an exchange of views with Martti Hetemäki, Permanent State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance of Finland. Congress President Anders Knape welcomed the fact that local and regional democracy is at the heart of the Finnish government's concerns. "We are very pleased that many of the priorities of the Finnish Presidency coincide with our own priorities and interests," he added.

The Secretary of State informed the Bureau that Finland was in the process of carrying out a major reform of the country's governance. It provides for the creation of an additional level of government in the form of 18 counties with elected councils, whose main responsibilities will be to manage and provide social and health services to citizens. The Secretary of State stressed that this was "a revolutionary reform, unprecedented for more than two hundred years". This reform is currently under discussion in Parliament and is the subject of many debates and consultations.

At the opening of its meeting, the Bureau was welcomed by the President of the Finnish Association of Local and Regional Authorities, Sirpa Paatero, who stressed that democratic stability is based on good governance at the local level, because it is the level that has the confidence of citizens. The Bureau meeting was held in Helsinki at the invitation of the national association in the context of the Finnish Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers (November-May 2019).

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