The Role of Regional Councils in Denmark

In this episode, we explore the Regional Council’s role and responsibilities — and why it plays such an essential part in your daily life. From managing healthcare, mental health services, and emergency response, to shaping regional development and policy, we break down what the Regional Council actually does and how it affects you.

Join us for a 30-minute conversation with our main guest as we discuss:

• What the Regional Council is and how it differs from your local council
• Which services, budgets, and decisions are handled at the regional level
• How residents — including internationals — can get involved and influence regional politics
• Why voting in the regional election (the yellow ballot) is just as important as voting locally

If you’ve ever wondered who makes decisions about hospitals, emergency services, or regional transportation — and how you can have a say — this episode is for you. Tune in to understand how the Regional Council impacts your community and why your vote matters more than you might think.

The podcast is made by AMIS (an NGO that has over 30 years of history of making projects aimed at developing better opportunities and inclusion in Denmark and Europe), Nyt Europa (an NGO that works for a sustainable and democratic EU) and Last Week in Denmark (a weekly newsletter about Danish latest news available in 6 languages - English, Romanian, Polish, Spanish, Turkish and Italian).

Transcript

Unknown Speaker  0:02  
They don't run your garbage pickup.

Unknown Speaker  0:05  
They don't decide your parking tickets,

Speaker 1  0:09  
but they do run your hospital, your psychiatric care, your ambulances and your dentist.

Unknown Speaker  0:15  
Ever heard of the Regional Council?

Speaker 1  0:20  
Welcome to episode three of both home season two. I am Narcis George matake, and I'm here together with

Speaker 2  0:27  
Derek Hartman, and you're listening to episode three.

Speaker 1  0:31  
Exactly. We manage two episode three out of the five episodes. But today we have actually two very special guests, and I'm, I'm both of them have very, very typical Danish names. So I hope to God that I can pronounce their names. But we have with us the two presidents, one president from Central Denmark or mid juland, Anna skuch, now I hope. And then we have the president of the region of the capital or the Capital Region. Lars card. Hoy, I hope Welcome to our episodes, and please say, say a few few words about yourself. And probably also you can get a chance to actually say properly your name.

Speaker 3  1:14  
Yeah, my name is Anders kunau. Annas kunau In Danish, I'm the president of the central Denmark region. As you said, Nas, is that I've been for eight years now, and I'm also head of the board of the Danish regions. And the Danish regions is a board for for all of the five regions, and in the future, only four regions.

Speaker 1  1:35  
So you like the president of the president? Yeah, you

Speaker 3  1:39  
can say that a President of the Board of presidents and other board members. Yeah, from from the regions. Yeah, nice. So I live in in August. If all the listeners don't know that, it's, it's the next biggest town in Denmark,

Unknown Speaker  1:56  
super and now let's talk to the biggest town in Denmark.

Speaker 4  2:00  
Yes, hello, Derek and Narcis and all the listeners. My name is Lars gohoy, and it's difficult to say, but you did it quite well. Thank you. And I'm the chair of the Regional Council in the capital area. And as you said, President is actually a better title. So thank you for that. I've been chair the Regional Council for four years now, and soon we will be running for a new term, Anas and I, but there will also be some changes in in the regions, because today we have five regions in Denmark, and soon there will only be four. But I think we will get back to to that later in the program.

Speaker 1  2:41  
Thank you so much for being with us here, and I think it's quite an honor to get two presidents to speak English to the international audience. I don't think we ever had that before. So you're making history here today with us. So my first question to you is, what is original Council? Because people will be going to vote for the local and regional elections, and while people can get sense of local council, okay, it's the local mayor. We had one of those at home as well. Not everyone comes from a country where they had regions or they had to vote for a regional council. So what is the difference between a local and regional council in an easy way, I would say, not in a very complex and political sciencey way.

Speaker 3  3:21  
Yeah, you can say that one of the differences is the size, because the regions are typically much larger areas that they are ruling over. And there is also some differences in the tasks that they manage. We primarily have the responsibility for the healthcare system in Denmark, and we own the hospitals and most of the healthcare system in Denmark. And we, we make agreements with general practitioners, and we also responsible the last end for, for what they are doing in Denmark, and for, for psychologists and dentists, as you say, and everybody in the healthcare service in Denmark, we have responsibility of the other quality of the treatments and so on. So that is our primary responsibility. We don't have legislative powers like they have in other regions in Europe. And as you say, it's not every European country that that have regions at all, but it varies a lot between countries which power the regions have and also which size they have. We are comparable to a lot of other regions in Europe, but still we are smaller because the country is smaller, that's some of the differences.

Speaker 1  4:42  
Interesting, Lars, you were talking a bit earlier that there's a reform going on that they're cutting from five to four regions. Can you tell us more about that?

Speaker 4  4:52  
Yes, of course, today we have five regions, and in the future, there will only be four, and this means that. Two of the regions will be be one, and it's the it's the eastern part of Denmark. So today we have the capital area, which is one region, small in size, but the biggest in numbers. And then our neighbor region is, is a sea land which is a smaller region, big in size but smaller in numbers. And from January 1 27 it will be one common, big region covering the whole of, yeah, eastern part of Denmark. And then it's very technical, but we will have the next year. 26 will be kind of a year where we a year of transition. We have to get two big regions combined. There's a lot of employees, of course, and a lot of stuff going on, and that's a big task. And then from January 1 27 the new region will be running as a new region, but, but 26 will be a year of transition.

Speaker 1  5:59  
It's almost like a new country east Denmark. Yes, you have enough power and population to secede from the rest of us. Finally, the dream from the capital, right? Because there's always this divide between people living in the capital and people living in new land. So now basically, you brought the whole Capital Region and extension of it together, and then there's the rest of us, the North, the center, in the south. Are they planning to unite any more regions? You think?

Speaker 4  6:26  
No. There was a huge political debate. And I think there was also ideas on the table that there could be fewer regions, maybe three altogether, but it ended up with four, and Annas can say more about it. But the thing is that the western part of the country is even though Denmark is a small country, that's the big part geographically. I think the eastern part of Denmark, even though we are now half of the country in numbers, I think still Anna's region, regun mid, is still bigger in in size, okay? And I think even the southern region is also very huge in size. I think four regions is probably that's, that's how it ended. But I think there was, there was ideas that it could have been three, but it ended with four. Maybe Annas will say something,

Speaker 3  7:21  
yes, that's right. There was some discussion also, because the northern part of kjerdlin region, my part, your part region north, we call it is. It's quite smaller than the other regions. And the southern region in the country and the central German region are equal in size and just between the big region, the capital region and the northern region. So so they are now. In the future, they will there will be quite substantial difference in sizes between the northern Jutland region and the Eastern Region in Denmark. But it don't have to be a problem. We also see that in other parts of Europe that we have different sizes of regions, both in geographical size and in how many inhabitants are in the regions.

Speaker 1  8:19  
I think it's also because here in the North, people are very proud of their region, region north Denmark, and pushing us together with with the middle and making or who's the center and not all work anymore. It wasn't received very well by the locals. Let's just say that.

Speaker 3  8:33  
And I don't understand that, because the central demo region is a quite magnificent region. Yeah, of course I understand, because it's very important that you feel represented by the politicians that you select. And the northern part of Jutland is special in its own way. Like the other parts of Denmark, there are different cultures in different parts of Denmark, and you have to respect that. I think when I'm serious, I would say I definitely understand why the northern part of Jordan is their own region, also in the future.

Speaker 1  9:06  
So now my question to is, how many council members will the regions have? Now, I've heard there's also a change in the in the numbers, because it used to be a fixed number of 41 did that change?

Speaker 4  9:16  
Yes, that is, that is one of the things that are changing, because today we have five regions with 41 politicians in each region. But in the future, it will be more different. So in in the eastern part of Denmark, the East region, there will be 47 that's a huge difference with with the situation now, because there's two times 41 so there's 82 today, but in the future, there will be 47 so that's a huge difference. And of course, now, two months before an election, some of the candidates are worried it's going to be more difficult to get elected. But also part. States of the of the region are wondering, will there be a politician elected in our area? Whether it will be a blue or green or red politicians that not the issue, but will there be a local representative in in the big Council? Nobody knows, because there will be 47 that is for certain, but they can be elected anywhere in the new region. So there are people and that have concerns about the democracy. Will it be representative, or will it all only be the bigger cities? Maybe running away with all the will all the members? We don't know. I think there will be a pretty good coverage geographically, but we'll wait and see the voters will decide. There's

Speaker 1  10:46  
not much longer until we find that out how it functions. But Anas, can you tell us? How does it function the Regional Council internally? Because I know the local council has a mayor, has Aldermen. Is it something similar in the Regional Council? Where do you have like kind of the mayor, which is the president, which is what you guys do? And do you have some sort of people who are like, between regional councilmen and the president? Is there any position in the middle, like there is on the local council, the aldermen positions,

Speaker 3  11:15  
we are presidents or chairs of the Regional Council, and that's like a mayor in a municipality that's quite the same. We also have some committees under the council in each committee, we have one person that is head of that committee, and we still will. We will have that also in the future. But the new thing with the reform is that we will have some healthcare committees, decentralized healthcare committees under each regional council. And these healthcare committees will have both politicians from the municipalities in that area where the committee have power over the healthcare system, and they will also have some directly elected politicians from the regional councils in these committees. So that's quite a new thing with the reform, and we have to see how that will function. Think it will be very important. But then we still have the regional councils, and we also have one committee under the Regional Council that is taking care of all healthcare related issues and also all other issues that we from, for example, transportation, busses, trains and like that. So that will be the new structure. So today it's quite similar to a municipality with committees under it and with a chair or a mayor or what do you call it? It's the same today, but in the future, it will be quite different.

Speaker 2  12:52  
I'm glad that we mentioned specifically healthcare as one of the main functions. Do I think when most of us in the international community, for example, think of, Okay, what does a regional council person do? Or why are these local and regional elections so important? Healthcare is something that comes up most frequently. You mentioned the committees on us, which is very interesting. Could you maybe tell us a little bit more on the role that the Regional Council plays when it comes to things like, for example, like hospitals, like the planning, construction, staffing, the budgets, the things that we hear a lot about in the news, but maybe at a very high level, sort of the headline level we hear about this. But how does that kind of impact what you do or what your role is from from your level? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  13:34  
we have the responsibility

Speaker 3  13:36  
for for the healthcare system, as you say, and the hospitals are the biggest part of the healthcare system. Around half of the population is visiting a hospital as a patient for one time or more each year. So it's very big entities, and we have a lot of patients in the hospitals, and we are responsible for the hospitals we own the hospitals in the regions, so everything from planning to daily functions and decisions in the hospitals, we have the responsibility for that, but we also have the general practitioners and other parts of the more near healthcare services under the regions and now With the new structure, we will get even more, though we will be quite near to the elderly care, but the elderly care will still be a responsibility for the municipalities, but we have to work very much together with the municipalities to prevent mostly elderly To come to hospitals.

Unknown Speaker  14:40  
We we we have to make better

Speaker 3  14:44  
diagnosis and treatments to elderly people and others in the in the primary health care.

Speaker 2  14:53  
I know mental health care is also part of the umbrella of these services as well. You're also responsible for those. Are there any challenges that it seems like we hear about these a lot, where there are challenges in the system and things that maybe, whether it's wait times or things with psychiatric and the mental health care side. Are there any specific challenges that either of you are facing in your regions, and is there anything that is maybe a difference, whether it's for elder care or mental health services that may be different challenges in different parts of Denmark.

Speaker 4  15:25  
I can say something on mental health. This is one of the really big, big challenges in In fact, in all in all over the country, especially when it comes to children and young people, there is long waiting time to get into treatment in the regional psychiatry, and that's the same all over the country. We have invested a lot in our psychiatry, and we are also hiring people all over the country, but we must be honest and say that we see more and more children and young people coming to the psychiatry, and that's also why the government decided, in cooperation with the regions, a 10 year plan to strengthen the psychiatry for children, young people and also adults. And one of the things we have to do better in Denmark is that we have to see problems on an earlier stage and have a prevention or intervention earlier on. So so maybe you don't have to be a patient in the regional psychiatry. That's very difficult. We are working on it in in all of the regions. And the reform is also a challenge, because up till now, the psychiatry has been a hospital on its own, and the somatics hospitals hospitals on their own. Now they will be combined and be one hospital. So that's a reform in the reform, you can say, but it is a big challenge in Denmark, as in many other European countries, with a lot of people, unfortunately, having mental, mental health issues. Yeah, we use a lot of time on this issue in my region, and also in analysis region and the other regions. It's, it's really difficult. I must say,

Speaker 2  17:20  
there's definitely a lot, a lot on your plates. Of course, I know one of the other things, as well as regional development. So the idea of basically the planning and the development for things like education, the environment, mobility, just getting around. Can you maybe give us some examples of those things? Of course, they're not all related to the healthcare system and the mental health but maybe the things that we don't always think about as far as the regional development plans and things that are going on in the background that maybe don't get as much attention in the media,

Speaker 4  17:51  
one thing is, is the busses and local trains. This is run by regions, and when you think of busses going across several municipalities, then it's probably a regional bus. So when you go to work, or maybe to to your education and goes a long distance and go by bus, it's most probably a regional bus. And you don't think about that when you're you're just, you know, taking the bus, but that's one of our more unknown tasks. And there's a lot of local trains, also where the regions they run the local trains. So that's also very important to to connect, you know, the country and the cities and the more rural areas. So it's probably a bit unknown, but it's, it's a huge task, and also a lot of economy, to be honest, and also difficult, because public transportation is only getting more expensive, and it's also also a challenge to get people to go by the bus. So it's an important task, yes, so that's that's a bit of the regional development. Maybe honest. Can add something on some of the others.

Speaker 3  19:02  
Yes, we also have a task about pollution. So we have to clean up bigger pollutions, but also some pollutions that are concentrating around small areas, like private homes. So we have to help people get rid of these pollutions. That's one of our responsibilities as a region. We also have some responsibilities in the educational sector, high schools. We have some tasks in this area also. That's some of the areas that we that we are working in as regions.

Speaker 1  19:39  
Derek, I think we covered what the Regional Council actually does, and I think it will be interesting to see what both Lars and Anna's think about internationals. So it's a unique chance to get someone that it's in a leadership position within Danish politics to tell us what do they think about the international community. Because do you want international residents that live in Denmark? To vote in these elections, because I know that there is a debate now that should we even be allowed to vote? And I know that's one way that we can influence regional politics, obviously, is by voting. But we haven't really voted in the past years. Because even though it's a right we have since 1995 it hasn't been talked about very much. I know that because here in Aalborg, we made the first campaign in English back in 1013 when in Copenhagen was not even a discussion about it. Yeah, I'm proud. So you seem very proud of that. Yeah, so, but the point is that, what do you think about internationals? Blars, if you

Speaker 4  20:32  
want to, yeah, I think you should go vote. It's your it's your right. And you live here, and you participate in the society, you you study, you work, you pay taxes, and of course, you should vote. To me, it's, it's a no brainer, to be honest. And I know there's a discussion now, and I'm not part of that discussion, because I think it's a right you have. And to be honest, me, as chair of a big region, we are very dependent on internationals also to come work at our hospitals and and many other places. So, yeah, I think it's normal, and you should be proud and go vote and take part. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 3  21:16  
I totally agree with with LAS. Of course, you have the right to vote and in a democracy is it's very important that the voters use their votes in democratic elections. Definitely go vote for the Regional Council also, and for the municipalities as well.

Speaker 1  21:34  
But here comes the question from my side, from you, from the regional level, are you able to influence in any way the voting process? Because, you know, one thing is to give a right, but another thing is to create a space for it to be used, right? So Are either of you campaigning in English or trying to communicate any political messages towards the international community?

Speaker 4  21:57  
No, not, not too much. I take part today, and I'm also looking for, you can say, international media in the Copenhagen area, just to reach out and show that I'm around, and also to get people to to know that there's election coming up and they have the right to vote. And then, of course, if people are interested, politicians are as as Annas and I, we are very easy to get hold on, on, on the social medias and just write an email or write a message or whatever, and we will be more than happy to answer also in English and and maybe even German, but that's But that's it, for my part, nice, But I haven't made, you know, brochures in English or something like that. No, I haven't.

Speaker 1  22:44  
Okay. Do you have any say into how the voting sections are being organized? Or that's a completely local task, like, like the voting sections where you go and vote, like, those are organized by the local level, or also by the regional level. Is it a shared task?

Speaker 3  23:00  
No, it's, it's not up to us. It's not a task for the Regional Council. So, no, it is not. It is the municipalities that have the responsibility for for the places that you can go vote.

Speaker 1  23:16  
Okay, fantastic. Okay, we talked about voting, and you said clearly that people can reach out to you via social media. But are there other ways that citizens, people who live here in your regions, are able to influence the politics that you do? Is there any other way that a person who is not elected can influence what you do in there any other form of

Speaker 4  23:36  
course, you could always contact us and and you can also be member of a party and join the campaigns and just attend meetings and raise your voice and say what's on your mind. In Denmark, we have a very short distance from Hanas and I, even though we are nicknamed presidents today, later today, this afternoon, we will meet regular people in the streets, and people will say, like, what's on their mind, maybe good, maybe bad. So feel free to just reach out. And there's different ways. Of course, you can be member of a party and then you are very close to the politicians. But you could also just reach out, and if you have, like, maybe a meeting where you gather a lot of people, it's easy to invite us, and maybe it's a, you know, a Tuesday evening, and we would like to attend if, if it's possible, of course, now, close to the election, we want to meet as many people as as possible, but, but the calendar is also pretty jammed already. But I think if you want to meet politicians, reach out. We want to talk to people.

Speaker 1  24:42  
Yeah, but what can you say about because I know that there is this public hearings. Every time you pass a new strategy for for the region, you do this, public hearings, consultation rounds. I even heard that if you're a patient, you can join some patient boards. Are those ways? Is that you can get involved, I guess. What can you tell us? What are those ways of influencing?

Speaker 3  25:05  
Yeah, that's also a way of influencing to be part of a patient organization, and you can have meetings with us politicians through these challenges. So there's a lot of ways to get influence on the politicians. And of course, if you are a member of a patient organization, we will have regular meetings with you.

Unknown Speaker  25:29  
Some of them, we will have that, yeah,

Speaker 4  25:33  
maybe I can add that, you know, in Denmark, we often say that we are a country of many organizations, and sometimes people organize around maybe their disease, if you are diabetic or then you can be part of that organization. And other times you can be part of a political party or or some other organization that that will work with issues concerning maybe health or maybe traffic or maybe environment. So there's many ways you can be active and also be engaged in politics. And some are more direct than others, of course, but I think there's many possibilities. And in general, Danes are pretty nice people, and mostly also okay in English, so I think it should be fairly easy to get access.

Speaker 2  26:22  
So one thing that we noticed, and actually was a bit surprising, of course, was knowing that amongst the international community, of course, the level of voter participation is lower than I think, of course, we would like, and lower than a lot of our Danish peers, but also that local elections are getting a little bit more attention if more people are voting in the local elections than the regional elections, that was a bit surprising, especially because they are held on the same day, so if most people are voting simultaneously for that, it was a bit surprising to learn that the turnout was about five to 10% lower than it is for the local elections. Do you have any insights into why people may be less likely to vote for their regional representation compared to their their local or municipal representation?

Speaker 3  27:10  
I think the municipalities have have responsibility for more areas, for more political issues than we have. We mostly have healthcare. So if you are not so interested in healthcare issues, maybe the Regional Council is not so important for you. Of course, traffic as as also Lars mentioned busses and local trains. It's important. But most voters don't know which busses is regional and which is municipalities, and they don't have to know either way. So, so, so I think the municipalities, they have more issues, schools, elderly care and so on. So. So I think that that could be one of the reasons, and maybe also the politicians are more a part of the community they live in. They are responsible for for smaller communities than we are the regional councils. It's more far away from the electors. I think that could be another way to explain the differences that may have some influence on how many voters actually using their right to vote.

Speaker 2  28:20  
So it's the physical proximity, but also sort of the proximity to the issues and their lives. May be a bit to do

Speaker 4  28:28  
with that. Yeah, I might add that I totally agree with others, but you could also add that in a municipality, it's often maybe more easy to comprehend the differences, because it's either you are pro or against building a school or building a new city hall or something like that, very concrete, for or against. Whereas in health, it's more it's more difficult, it's more complicated, and it's not black and white. In fact, it's bit of a paradox, because people always say that health is very, very important, but at the same time, it's a bit difficult to comprehend. And then maybe it's part of why, why people don't vote because, oh, it's difficult, and I understand that. So we need to be more clear on what's the differences and what's the task we are having the responsibility for? So yeah, that's on our part. We have to be better at telling about what we're doing. But also people, they should also they should use the right to vote, because suddenly, if you don't vote, someone else will decide for you. So go vote.

Speaker 1  29:43  
That's a great message. I'm curious if you were to say one message to the international community, maybe to convince them to support you, because you're both running for the elections right now. What will that message be, a last message from your side to the community, if you were to transmit or maybe something you find. Waiting for that will be specifically helping internationals. Is there anything that you can mention