The Regional Councils are involved in developing EU regional policy and draw up the programmes required for the granting of support from EU structural funds for their own regions. For taking Finland's special conditions into account, the Councils have emphasized the Northern Dimension in drawing the lines of new EU regional policy. This means taking account of low population density and cold weather conditions when planning regional development programmes. The Regional Councils propose their own candidates for membership and deputy membership of the EU Committee of the Regions. The Regional Councils have permanent representation in Brussels.
International contacts are vitally important to a small country like Finland.
In addition to traditional Nordic cooperation, the field of international relations will grow further in conjunction with future enlargement of the EU and the intensification of cooperation with neighbouring areas Russia and the Baltic States, not forgetting the North-South cooperation. In addition to their statutory duties, the Regional Councils have a broad scope of non-statutory operations, which are defined and emphasized by the special characteristics of the region. Organization of the Regional Councils Finland's Regional Councils are joint municipal authorities formed and principally funded by their member municipalities. The Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the Regional Council. The councils of the member municipalities elect representatives to the Assembly for a period of four years, the time between local elections.