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As
of July 2004, the government is in the process of reforming the
regions (the Municipality Reform, Kommunalreformen). The 13
counties (amter) will be replaced with 5 new regions* (regioner),
while the 271 municipalities will be consolidated into around 100
larger units of at least 20,000 inhabitants and take over most of
the responsibilities of the current counties.
The
Regions of Denmark will be
created under the Danish Municipal Reform of 2007, which will
create five new administrative units to replace the country's
traditional thirteen counties (amter). At the same time,
smaller municipalities (kommuner) will be merged into
larger units, cutting the number of municipalities from 271 to 98.
The reform will be implemented on 1 January 2007. The most
important area of responsibility for the new regions will be the
national health service.
The
reform has been called the biggest reform in thirty years, and is
an important policy issue for the current Liberal-Conservative
Danish cabinet, most importantly for Lars Løkke Rasmussen,
minister of the Interior and Health. The abolition of the counties
has long been an important goal for both the Conservatives and the
Danish People's Party. In June 2004, the Danish People's Party
decided to back the reform, thus securing a majority in the Danish
parliament, Folketinget, although the party had preferred just
abolishing the counties without replacing them with a new third
administrative level (the other two being the government and the
municipalities).
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