Stockholm Municipality

Stockholm Municipality Stockholms kommun
—  Municipality  —
Seal
Country	Sweden
County	Stockholm County
Seat	Stockholm
Government
- Mayor	Sten Nordin (Moderate Party)
Area[1]
- Total	83.5 sq mi (216.237289 km2)
- Land	72.6 sq mi (188.057289 km2)
- Water	10.9 sq mi (28.18 km2)
	Area as of January 1, 2010.
Population (June 30, 2010)[2]
- Total	837,031
- Density	10,025.6/sq mi (3,870.9/km2)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code
ISO 3166 code	SE
Province	Uppland and Södermanland
Municipal code	0180
Website	www.stockholm.se

Stockholm Municipality or the City of Stockholm (Swedish: Stockholms kommun or Stockholms stad) is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It is the largest of the 290 municipalities of the country in terms of population, but one of the smaller in terms of area, making it the most densely populated. It is also the most populous municipality in the Nordic countries.

Although legally a municipality with the official proper name Stockholms kommun, the municipal assembly (kommunfullmäktige) has decided to use the name Stockholms stad (City of Stockholm in English) whenever possible. This is purely nominal and has no effect on the legal status of the municipality.

Geography

Geographically, Stockholm Municipality comprises the central part of the capital (Innerstaden or Stockholm City Centre) as well as the southern and western suburban parts (Söderort or South Stockholm and Västerort or West Stockholm respectively). Of the municipal population, all but 200 people are considered living in the Stockholm urban area, a tätort further extending into ten other municipalities.

History

When the first local government acts came into force in Sweden in 1863, Stockholm was one of the then 89 cities of Sweden. A first City Council was elected. The area roughly corresponded with today's Innerstaden. Large areas were annexed in 1913, 1916 and 1949. The city was outside Stockholm County until 1968, having its own governor. The local government reform of 1971 made Stockholm a unitary municipality like all others in the country.

Politics

The municipality is governed by a Municipal assembly (kommunfullmäktige) with 101 members. These are elected through municipal elections, held in conjunction with the Parliamentary elections every four years. The council meets twice a month and the meetings are open to the public. The council elects a Municipal executive committee (kommunstyrelse), with 13 members representing both the political majority and the opposition, with the responsibility of implementing policies approved by the assembly. The political organisation also includes eight governing full-time Commissioners (borgarråd) and four Commissioners representing the opposition. The work is headed by the Commissioner of Finance (finansborgarråd, sometimes called Mayor), who also chairs the executive committee. The current Commissioner of Finance is Sten Nordin, representing the Moderate Party.

Following the 2006 municipal elections, the seats are divided in the following way:
The governing parties		Parties in opposition
The Moderate Party	41	The Social Democrats	27
The Liberal People's Party	10	The Left Party	9
The Christian Democrats	3	The Green Party	10
		The Centre Party	1

Following the 2002 municipal elections, the seats were divided in the following way:
The governing parties		Parties in opposition
The Social Democrats	35	The Moderate Party	27
The Left Party	11	The Liberal People's Party	17
The Green Party	6	The Christian Democrats	5

Municipal elections 1994-2006

Year	Moderate Party			Christian Democrats			Centre Party			Liberals			Stockholm Party			Green Party			Social Democrats			Left Party			others
	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
1994	128 975	28,7	29	9 399	2,1	0	24 329	5,4	5	35 437	7,9	9	15 309	3,4	2	35 120	7,8	8	148 684	33,0	37	41 274	9,2	11	11 533	2,5	0
1998	146 797	32,9	35	28 320	6,4	6	9 187	2,1	0	34 789	7,8	9	19 561	4,4	3	26 347	5,9	6	114 118	25,6	28	54 663	12,3	13	20 411	4,5	0
2002	121 405	26,0	27	20 746	4,4	5	5 939	1,2	0	73 736	15,7	17	9 137	1,9	0	24 965	5,3	6	149 871	32,0	35	52 325	11,2	11	8 772	1,8	0
2006	180 207	37,3	41	18 907	3,9	3	15 205	3,1	1	46 657	9,6	10	5 831	1,2	0	44 530	9,2	10	118 129	24,4	27	38 284	7,9	9	16 084	2,6	0

Stockholm Party is a local party, which was represented in the City Council 1979-2002.

Board of Commissioners since 2006

• Sten Nordin (m), Commissioner of Finance (after 2008) (finansborgarråd)
• Mikael Söderlund (m), Commissioner of Building and Traffic (byggnads- och trafikborgarråd)
• Ulla Hamilton (m), Commissioner of Environment and Real Estate (miljö och bostadsbolagsborgarråd)
• Lotta Edholm (fp), Commissioner of Education (skolborgarråd)
• Madeleine Sjöstedt (fp), Commissioner of Culture and Sports (kulturborgarråd)
• Kristina Alvendal (m), Commissioner of Housing and Integration (bostads- och integrationsborgarråd)
• Ulf Kristersson (m), Commissioner of Social Services (socialborgarråd)
• Ewa Samuelsson (kd), Commissioner of Senior Citizen's Service (äldrevårdsborgarråd)
• Carin Jämtin (s), Commissioner in Opposition (oppositionsborgarråd)
• Roger Mogert (s), Commissioner in Opposition (oppositionsborgarråd)
• Ann-Margarethe Livh (v), Commissioner in Opposition (oppositionsborgarråd)
• Yvonne Ruwaida (mp), Commissioner in Opposition (oppositionsborgarråd)

District Councils

The district council areas of Stockholm

The municipality is subdivided into 14 districts. These districts are sometimes incorrectly referred to as "boroughs" in English. They are, however, no legal entities or juristic persons of their own, but committees of the municipality itself. These districts are administered by District Councils, stadsdelsnämnder, which carry responsibility for primary school, social, leisure and cultural services within their respective areas. The members of these councils are not directly elected by the inhabitants of the respective districts, but rather appointed by the kommunfullmäktige (municipal assembly).

Effective January 1, 2007 the number of district councils was reduced from 18 to 14 through a number of merges. Maria-Gamla stan and Katarina-Sofia now form Södermalm borough, Enskede-Årsta and Vantör now form Enskede-Årsta-Vantör, Hägersten and Liljeholmen now form Hägersten-Liljeholmen, and Kista and Rinkeby now form Rinkeby-Kista.

Stockholm City Centre	South Stockholm	West Stockholm
Kungsholmen Norrmalm Södermalm Östermalm	Enskede-Årsta-Vantör Farsta Hägersten-Liljeholmen Skarpnäck Skärholmen Älvsjö	Bromma Hässelby-Vällingby Rinkeby-Kista Spånga-Tensta

Twin Towns - Sister Cities

The policy of Stockholm is to have informal town twinning with all capitals of the world, its main focus being those in northern Europe. Stockholm does not sign any formal town twinning treaties, although the city claims to have established such treaties in the past which are still valid.^[3]

The cities claiming to have been twinned with Stockholm are:

Tirana, Albania [4] Warsaw, Poland[citation needed] Kiev, Ukraine[citation needed] Tunis,Tunisia[citation needed] Cali, Colombia[citation needed] Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (since 1997) [5] St. Petersburg, Russia (since 1992)[6]

Istanbul, Turkey[citation needed] Podgorica, Montenegro[citation needed] Reykjavik, Iceland[citation needed] Riga, Latvia [7] Khemisset, Morocco[citation needed]

References

Notes

1. ^ "Statistiska centralbyrån den 1 januari 2010" (in Swedish) (Microsoft Excel). Statistics Sweden. http://www.scb.se/Statistik/MI/MI0802/2010A01/mi0802tab3_2010.xls. Retrieved 2010-08-21. 
2. ^ "SCB, Befolkningsstatistik 30 juni 2010" (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. http://www.scb.se/Pages/TableAndChart____244147.aspx. Retrieved 2010-08-19. 
3. ^ "Internationell strategi" – Stockholm Stads official website
4. ^ Twinning Cities: International Relations. Municipality of Tirana. www.tirana.gov.al. Retrieved on 2008-01-25.
5. ^ "Fraternity cities on Sarajevo Official Web Site". © City of Sarajevo 2001-2008. http://www.sarajevo.ba/en/stream.php?kat=147. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
6. ^ "Saint Petersburg in figures - International and Interregional Ties". Saint Petersburg City Government. http://eng.gov.spb.ru/figures/ities. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
7. ^ "Riga municipality portal". Riga.lv. 2008-05-20. http://www.riga.lv/EN/Channels/Riga_Municipality/Twin_cities_of_Riga/default.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-06. 

External links

• The City of Stockholm - Official site

Coordinates: 59°21′N 18°04′E / 59.35°N 18.067°E / 59.35; 18.067