Värmdö municipality

Värmdö with its 39,000 inhabitants is one of the 290 municipalities in Sweden.

The municipality is the local authority. Here are some examples of areas for which municipalities are responsible:

• pre-schools and nine year compulsory schools
• upper secondary schools
• care of elderly people
• care of disabled people
• maintenance support
• libraries
• planning and building
• environmental and health protection
• sewage system
• waste
• emergency and rescue services.

The municipality also does other things for the benefit and development of society.

Local self government and democracy

Compared to most other countries, local self-government is very strong in Sweden — every municipality has great freedom to decide about its own activities.

The Government wants the municipalities to decide as much as possible about their activities. On the other hand, the Government decides on laws which govern the municipalities.

One important condition for governance is the right to decide the level of local taxation and the right to levy taxes. Municipalities’ main source of income is local tax. Inhabitants who are registered or own property in the municipality, are its members.

The principle of public access to official documents gives all Swedish and foreign citizens the right to have access to and read public and official documents. Every member of the municipality also has the right to have the legality of the decisions reviewed by the County Administrative Court.

Local democracy in the municipalities is an important part of Swedish democracy. Every municipality has an assembly with representatives from the political parties. The municipal assembly appoints the executive committee and the other committees.

General elections to parliament, the municipal assembly and the county council are held at the same time every four years.