Capital Region of Denmark / Denmark

The Capital Region of Denmark is the easternmost administrative region of Denmark, established on January 1, 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform, which abolished the traditional counties and set up five regions. At the same time, smaller municipalities were merged into larger units, cutting the number of municipalities from 271 before 1 January 2006, when Ærø Municipality was created, to 98. The reform diminished the power of the regional level dramatically in favor of the local level and the central government in Copenhagen. The Capital Region has 29 municipalities. The regional council consists of 41 elected politicians. The chairman as of 1 January 2014 is Sophie Hæstorp Andersen. She is a member of the Social Democrats political party. The reform was implemented on January 1, 2007. The main task for the Danish regions are hospitals and healthcare. It is not to be confused with the Copenhagen Metropolitan Area nor with the Øresund Region. Unlike the counties the regions are not municipalities and are thus not allowed to have coat of arms, but only logotypes, and cannot "shuffle money around" from one area of expenditure to another area of expenditure, that is, use money for any other purpose than has been stated specifically, but must pay money not used back rather like departments or agencies of the central government. The regions do not levy any taxes but are financed only through block grants. For population growth, see Regions of Denmark. For information about the reform, see Municipalities of Denmark. Municipalities of the regions can be accessed from the Municipalities of Denmark template at the bottom of the page.