Skåne Regional Council: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Skåne Regional Council (Region Skåne) is the evolved County Council of Skåne County in Sweden. Its main responsibilities are for the public healthcare system and public transport.

The Skåne Regional Council was created on Jan 1, 1999, by the merger of the county councils in the former Malmöhus County and Kristianstad County, as well as county council tasks formerly handled by the municipality of Malmö. By devolution the newly formed Regional Council also assumed some power, on trial until 2006, from the Skåne County Administrative Board, the regional authority in Skåne of the Swedish government. The devolution of power mainly concerned responsibility for long term regional planning and other previously administrative provisions. It did not provide any extended political privileges or autonomy against the national government, nor any authority over the local municipalities. Similar provisions had also been extended to the Västra Götaland Regional Council and the Gotland Council during a trial period.

Even though the Regional Council has managed to gain a local popularity in Scania, the trial period in the three regions is considered a failure in political and administrative terms. A successful trial would have ment that similar provisions would have been implemented through out Sweden, and that the County Councils would have been surplanted by Regional Councils. Instead it is likely that the system with County Councils will be abandoned altogeather, to be replaced by a new system regional cooperation to a shape or form not yet known. It is not yet clear whether at the end of the trial period in 2006 that the Regional Councils will revert back to ordinary County Councils, or whether status quo will be maintained until a new regional system in Sweden might be implemented.

Regional Parliament

The Regional Council, or Regional Parliament, assembles in the Scania House (Skånehuset) in Kristianstad. Next elections are scheduled to be held in conjunction with the national elections, on the third Sunday of September in 2006.