Comparative Table of Parliamentary TA Institutions
FINLAND - THE COMMITTEE FOR THE FUTURE
Organisation
In 2000 Parliament decided
to make the Committee a permanent Committee with the same high status
as the other standing permanent committees.
The committee has meetings twice a week. 17 members of
Parliament from all political parties sit around the same table in the
committee room and their only task is think, discuss and decide on new
things - on Futures as researchers of Future Studies would say. In the
Finnish parliamentary system committee meetings are closed, so MPs are
more free to discuss and look for common or different opinions. Anyway
they share different kinds of problems and options of Futures in spite
of being representatives from right to left and all between.
Its current tasks are (1) to prepare material to be submitted
to the Finnish Parliament, such as government reports on the future,
(2) to make submissions on future-related long-term issues to other
standing committees, (3) to debate issues relating to future
development factors and development models, (4) to undertake analyses
pertaining to future-related research and IT methodology, and (5) to
function as a parliamentary body for assessing technological
development and its consequences for society.
All members of the Committee are MPs, and like most of the
other standing committees it has 17 members. So, it neither
concentrates on preparing legislation nor reviewing the government´s
annual budget proposal, but in other respects it resembles the other
committees. What makes it different is the nature of its functions and
its new fields of tasks. Its mission is to conduct an active and
initiative-generating dialogue with the government on major future
problems and the means of solving them. Since the problems of the
future and above all its opportunities, cannot be studied through
traditional parliamentary procedures and work methods alone, the
committee has been given the specific task of following and using the
results of research. Indeed, the committee can be said to be making
policy on the future, because its goal is not research but rather
policy.
Because the Committee itself decides its modest annual
research, printing and translation budget, research projects must be
chosen, manned, timed and directed well. The Committee has an annual
budget for the research projects and permanent scientific expert who
coordinates projects. All administrative costs are covered by
Parliament´s general budget.