Scania: New Regional Divisions Proposed
Concerns over the efficiency of the current 21-county administrative divisions over Sweden has prompted the Swedish government to form a “Committee of Responsibility”, otherwise known as the Ansvarskommitten, to compile a series of reports to explore alternative divisions for the administration of Sweden. Recent developments on the details of the Ansvarskommitten’s new regional administrative map of Sweden has shown steps of incorporating the Scanian provinces Skåne, Halland, and Blekinge into a single administrative unit without the explicit designation of “Scanialand”.
Details of the Committee reports have yet to be disclosed to the public and there are further concerns whether this new regionalization of
Regional designations of the Ansvarskommitten
Currently at the regional level, the Swedish government is divided into 21 counties each governed by a state-commissioner. Political tasks of the counties are administered by a directly-elected City Council and by the county administrative boards which are government bodies within the county. The historic region of Scania, otherwise known as Skaanelandene, encases the counties/provinces (län) of Skane, Halland, Blekinge, and the
The Ansvarskommitten is exploring the possibility to merge the current 21 counties into 9 larger regions along the lines of the current Riksområden used for statistical purposes. According to leaked information on the committee, if approved, the new 9 division of Swedish self-governing regions would come into effect by 2010. On 23 September 2005, the following regional suggestions were placed on the agenda:
Region 1:
Region 2:
Region 3:
Region 4:
Region 5:
Region 6:
Region 7:
Region 8:
Region 9:
The proposal of the Ansvarskomitten once placed in effect would abolish the
Similarities towards the Ansvarkommitten proposals and the current Riksområden division of Swedish territorial Units
Riksområden, otherwise known as the “national areas” is a second level division of
East Middle
South Sweden:
North Middle
Middle Norland:
Upper Norland:
Smaland and the Islands:
West Sweden:
In respects to Scania, the Ansvarskomitteen would place counties in the Riksområden of “South Sweden” under the same regional body as parts of “Western Sweden”, municipalities of
Effects on Scania
Scanialand today is not a geopolitical entity but a cultural region. The proposed Swedish Ansvarskomitteen would create a regional administrative body which includes the Scanian provinces/counties of Halland, Blekinge and Skåne. In spite of Blekinge and Skåne’s County’s 1,000 shared years of history, this regional formation of what would appear to be a reconstruction Scanialand would not be recognized as “Scanialand” but to be placed under the proposed name of “Sydsverige” (Southern Sweden). This is due to the Swedish government’s choice of containing Blekinge and Skåne in the same administrative region on the basis of geography rather than the three national dimensions of culture, history, and identity, none of which factor as part of the Swedish Regional equation. The new region would also only include half of Halland’s municipalities and not the entire
