Mission to Denmark gives minister Bourgeois insight in future state reform

  • April 26, 2013
kopenhagen

On 22 and 23 April, Flemish minister for local and provincial government Geert Bourgeois paid a visit to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. Minister Bourgeois considers that the Scandinavian model of administrative organisation, in which a low level of poverty, high level of activity, individual autonomy and responsibility and healthy government finances go hand in hand, offers interesting insights. More specifically, during an extensive series of meetings, he gained knowledge on how Denmark handles the organisation of domestic government and integration.

Monday 22 April was all about Danish administrative organisation. Denmark has become characterised, since a major reform in 2007, as having an administrative structure with administratively powerful municipalities. There is only one limited intermediary level (the regions) with specifically allocated tasks, and the central government grants the municipalities a great deal of autonomy. Before that, Denmark had an administrative organisation like that in Flanders today: relatively small municipalities, provinces and a central government. In 2007, a major reform took place during which a redeployment of the municipalities went hand in hand with the allocation of an expanded set of powers for the municipalities.

Six years later, Denmark evaluates the reform positively. The local service provision for Danish citizens has now reached the same level, regardless of where people live, in the country or the city. The Danish municipalities can, within the framework of subsidiarity, autonomously exercise any number of powers, in proximity to the citizen.

During the meetings that minister Bourgeois held with Danish Minister for Economic Affairs and the Interior Mrs Margrethe Vestager, the same image kept coming to the fore: it was only after a transition of several years that the merged municipalities reached a higher level of efficiency and effectiveness. It was however noteworthy that Denmark did not have a scenario beforehand to guide the municipalities through the merger process.

Denmark is in the middle of a major digitisation process. Scale appears to be a lever here too. Citizens can carry out a great many transactions at home, such as changing their address or requesting social services. This closes the gap between the citizen and the public service provision.

A key part of minister Bourgeois’ trip was also a visit to the Egedal municipality. This municipality has just over 40,000 citizens and came into being as a result of the merger of three municipalities, each with populations between 11,000 and 16,000. During a meeting with the mayor and the senior official from the municipality, it became clear that Egedal, which is close to Copenhagen, is booking good results. With an unemployment of barely 3.9% and an employment level of 80.1% among women and 84.6% among men, the municipality is a textbook example of the Scandinavian model. Minister Bourgeois congratulated the mayor and the municipal director on the excellent results.

Finally, the agenda included a meeting with Danish Minister for Social Affairs and Integration Mrs Karen Hækkerup. Minister Hækkerup and a team of experts explained the Danish integration policy, focusing on the “Declaration of integration and active citizenship in Danish society” and the language test.