7.6.10 Scania A politically united region
Description
This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
7.6.10 Scania A politically united region
In Skåne, there is a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the
centralization of a lot of cultural and administrative activities around the
capital Stockholm. For example,there has been a famous research that showed
that Stockholm gets six times higher cultural subsidies than Malmö per
inhabitant. The editorial offices of national radio and TV stations are
usually located in Stockholm which many, not only Scanians, are worried give
a particular Stockholm perspective in produced programs.
But Sweden is slowly in a process of getting a new division into regions.
For the moment there are 24 smaller administrative provinces, "län", whose
borders date back to the 1630's. In the future, there might be less than ten
regions. What was long discussed (not a very loud debate though) was which
areas would belong together and many different alternatives came up. Finally
it was determined that Skåne and Western Sweden (including the second
Swedish city Göteborg) would start out reuniting their respective län into
two big regions (while the other Swedish län not involved would be left
intact for the moment). The Scanian politicians were probably the most eager
for this project and pushed rather strongly for it. (Already in 1992, did
the main political organisations in Skåne submit a request to the government
for a Skåne political region.) In this building of regions, the other parts
of Skåneland - Blekinge and Halland - were omitted from being part of the
new region. For now, they will continue being ordinary län.
So, a state official report in 1995 proposed that Skåne politically should
become one region and that a directly elected regional council should be
formed. The date was in a government proposition in 1996 specified to Jan 1,
1997. When this proposal will be carried through, today's two län councils
will disappear and be substituted by the regional council. Some of the state
administrative powers (concerning regional development) will be transferred
to the region. The Swedish parliament will make a decision concerning this
in 1996.
This report also suggested that the site of state administration would be
Kristianstad in northern Skåne and this soon became a heated issue where the
"capital of Skåne" would be. Malmö politicians were upset about making
Kristianstad the administrative site and the positions seemed to be locked.
Finally, this position was given to Malmö, a fact which of course angered
the Kristianstad politicians much and who threatened to leave the project
entirely.
Parallel to having this new common political institution, there is also
already a will from the regional politicians to coordinate and integrate
regional decision making. Many different political domains (eg
communications, economic life, education, tourism) are examined one by one
by selected teams on how to improve the way those decisions that concerns
all of Skåne are made. This will be made with or without the help of a
regional parliament. It seems, the theme is always one Skåne institution or
organisation for different activities. This is not least visible in the
names being used.
Sources: "Skånelands flagga", Sven-Olle R Olsson, 1993
Newspaper articles from "Sydsvenska Dagbladet", 1992-95
Brochures by SVEDAB (Svensk-Danska Broförbindelsen AB), 1993-94
Ett enat Skåne: www.skane.se, Öresundskomiteens: www.orestad.com
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