Every fourth year all Swedish citizens and others entitled to vote elect their political representatives to serve in the Swedish Parliament, on county councils and on municipal councils. Every fifth year voters elect their political representatives to sit in the European Parliament, where Sweden has 19 of the 785 seats.
Photo: Roger Lundberg
Sweden's County Administrative Boards are functioning as representatives of the Swedish Parliament and the Central Government at regional level. It is their responsibility to ensure that the decisions taken by the Swedish Parliament and the Central Government are implemented in the manner intended.
Many people confuse Sweden's County Administrative Boards with the country's County Councils. County Councils are municipal in nature. One of their principal functions is to take responsibility for the provision of public health and medicare facilities at regional level.
In Skåne and Västra Götaland the County Councils have now been replaced by directly-elected Regional Councils. These Regional Councils have taken over the functions that were previously the responsibility of the County Councils, including responsibility for the provision of public health and medicare facilities, cultural affairs and the provision of public transport, for example. Regional Councils have also been charged with responsibility for the development of their regions, a function that they have taken over from the County Administrative Boards.
On the island of Gotland, this responsibility rests with municipal councils. On Gotland, too, a new organization aimed at increasing coordinated administration is at the trial stage.
In Kalmar, responsibility for regional development is vested in an indirectly-elected Regional Council whose members are elected by the County Council and Municipal Councils.
At local level it is the Municipal Councils who have responsibility for issues closely affecting the lives of local inhabitants including the supervision of schools and pre-schools and the provision of refuse collection and cleansing services.
The function of the County Administrative Boards is to coordinate central government and municipal activities in their respective counties.