Helsinki is looking to secure a merger of the cities of Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen and Helsinki from the beginning of 2013.
The intention is present in a draft plan proposed by city civil servants that will be put in front of councillors on Thursday. The plan was reported in today's Helsingin uutiset.
The ideas will be pored over by the members of the council at a strategy seminar on Thursday and Friday.
According to Helsingin uutiset, the city officials would like to see the development of cooperation in the Greater Helsinki area and the wider Helsinki region such that the supply of services is not hindered by municipal boundary-lines.
"The administration of the broader Helsinki region would be promoted by the region's being made up of a few large communities", Helsingin uutiset quotes from the plan.
At present the region in question comprises 14 cities and municipalities.
The subject of a municipal merger involving the big four in the Greater Helsinki area has been in the air for some time: Vantaa has shown the least resistance to the idea of a merger with the capital, but it is not looked on particularly favourably in Espoo or in the small enclave of Kauniainen, nestled inside Espoo.
