1.
Municipalities of Sweden
–
The municipalities of Sweden are its lower-level local government entities. There are 290 municipalities which are responsible for a proportion of local services, including schools, emergency services. The Local Government Act of 1991 specifies several responsibilities for the municipalities and it also regulates a process through which any citizen can appeal the decisions of a local government to a county court. Municipal government in Sweden is similar to city government and cabinet-style council government. The assembly in turn appoints an executive committee from its members. The executive committee is headed by its chairman, the chairman is often referred as Municipal Commissioner. The first local government acts were implemented on January 1,1863, there were two acts, one for the cities and one for the countryside. The total number of municipalities was about 2,500, the rural municipalities were based on the old parishes and the then 89 cities/towns were based on the old chartered cities. There was also a type, köping or market town. The status of these was somewhere between the municipalities and the cities. There were only eight of them in 1863, rising to a peak of 96 in 1959, up until 1930, when the total number of municipalities reached its peak, there were more partitions than amalgamations. After years of preparations the first of the two nationwide municipal reforms of the 20th century was implemented in 1952, the number of rural municipalities was reduced from 2,281 to 816. Rather soon it was established that the reform of 1952 was not radical enough, a new commission,1959 års indelningssakkunniga concluded that the next municipal reform should create new larger mixed rural/urban municipalities. The Riksdag decided in 1962 that the new reform should be implemented on a voluntary basis, the process started in January 1964, when all municipalities were grouped in 282 kommunblock. The co-operation within the blocks should ultimately lead to amalgamations, the amalgamations within the blocks started in 1965 and more were accomplished in 1967 and 1969, when the number of municipalities dropped from 1006 to 848. The Riksdag, however, found the process too slow. In 1971 the unitary municipality was introduced and the number of entities went down to 464, in one case the process was not accomplished until 1977. Most of the municipalities were soon consolidated, but in cases the antagonism within the new unities was so strong that it led to divorces
2.
Counties of Sweden
–
The counties of Sweden are the top-level geographic subdivisions of Sweden. Sweden is today divided into 21 counties, however, the numbers of counties has varied over time, due to territorial gains/losses, at that time, they were what the translation of län into English literally means, fiefdoms. The county borders often follow the borders, but the Crown often chose to make slight relocations to suit its purposes. In every county except Gotland there is a county administrative board headed by a governor, appointed by the government, the county council is the elected regional political assembly for the municipal affairs of the county, primarily regarding public healthcare, public transport and culture. A number of other government agencies are organised on a county basis, including the main bodies of the police, employment, social insurance. With county codes, which were official until 1974, each county region contains a number of municipalities, the existence of which is partly at the discretion of the central government. Since 2004 their number has been 290, thus an average of 13.8 municipalities per county. Until 1968, the City of Stockholm had its own county code A, which is used interchangeably with AB in some contexts. L was for Kristianstad County and M was for Malmöhus County but since they were merged to form Skåne County, O used to stand for Gothenburg and Bohus County but has been used for Västra Götaland County since it was merged with Skaraborg County and Älvsborg County. Swedens provinces, or landskap, and the lands, or landsdelar, the provinces had their own laws and justice systems and could have large cultural and religious differences. Note that the province of Småland historically was several provinces with its own laws, here burial tradition in the era before the Viking age could differ significantly from province to province. The province of Norrbotten is a recent creation, it was part of Västerbotten which extended all the way to Österbotten into todays Finland before 1809. Finnish and Swedish Lappland was also one province until 1809, historically, the provinces were grouped in three lands, Götaland, being southern and western Sweden, Svealand being eastern and south-eastern, and Norrland being the entire northern half. The names of the first two refer to ancient tribes, and the third is a geographical reference and they are still commonly used as geographical references. The boundaries have changed over time, with the most significant in 1658 and 1812, in 1812 some provinces were moved from Götaland to Svealand. After the Finnish War, Sweden was forced to cede the counties in Finland to Russia following the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in, however, the counties were upheld in Finland until a reform in 1997. They are still in use in Sweden,370 years later, the counties in Finland established in 1634 were, Turku and Pori County, Nyland and Tavastehus County, Viborg and Nyslott County, Ostrobothnia County and Kexholm County. Over time the number of subdivisions in Finland increased to twelve, until a reorganization in 1997 reduced their number to six provinces, the counties in Finland were abolished in 2010
3.
Halland County
–
Halland County is a county on the western coast of Sweden. It corresponds roughly to the cultural and historical province of Halland and it borders the counties of Västra Götaland, Jönköping, Kronoberg, Skåne and the sea of the Kattegat. The County of Halland inherited its coat of arms from the province of Halland, when it is shown with a royal crown it represents the County Administrative Board. Counties mainly serve administrative purposes in Sweden, the culture and history of the area is to be found in its provincial counterpart Halland. The county was designed with virtually the same boundaries as the province, the major exception is a part of Hylte Municipality, which belongs to the province of Småland. The County Administrative Board is a Government Agency headed by a governor, among the main responsibilities of the Halland County Council are public health care issues. Swedens counties are entities for Swedens municipalities, responsible for things as child care, education, street planning. They are working long-term, but their preliminary reports suggest a reduction of the number of counties in Sweden. Halland county is there proposed to be divided in two halves, both to be combined with neighbouring large counties, Halland County Administrative Board Halland County Council Regional Association of Local Authorities in Halland Hotels in Halland
4.
Halmstad
–
Halmstad is a port, university, industrial and recreational city at the mouth of Nissan in the province of Halland on the Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat of Halmstad Municipality and the capital of Halland County, the city had a population of 92,797 in 2012, out of a municipal total of over 90,000. Halmstad is Swedens 20th-largest city by population and located about midway between Gothenburg and Malmö and it is Europes northernmost city with a lot of timber framing architecture. Halmstad, at the part of the Kingdom of Denmark, received its first city charter in 1307. The oldest remains of that first town are to be found at Övraby upstream on Nissan, just south of, the remains of the church can still be seen today between a defunct brick industry and a former landfill. In the 1320s the town moved to the present day town centre, at this time there were two monasteries in the town and during the 15th century the St. Nikolai church was built. Halland was the object of numerous battles, sieges and occupations by Swedish troops, during the Kalmar Union – a Nordic Union between Sweden, Norway and Denmark which lasted between 1400 and 1520 – it was in Halmstad that the Union King was to be finally selected. 1619 is an important date in the history of Halmstad, in March of that year, King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden and Christian IV met at the castle. Over a period of a week they celebrated the payment in full of the Älvsborg ransom, august of the same year saw the destruction of Halmstad by fire. Halland became part of Sweden for a period of thirty years when peace was declared at the Treaty of Brömsebro in 1645, the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658 made this acquisition permanent. Sweden defeated Denmark in the Battle of Fyllebro which took place in 1676 just outside Halmstad, the first May Day demonstration in Sweden was held in Halmstad in 1897. The population grew from 48,800 in 1990 to 58,577 in 2010, in September 2007 the city hosted the Solheim Cup, which was played at the Halmstad Golfklubb. In 2011 Halmstad was the port of the Tall Ships Races. Halmstad has the south Scandinavian variety of the relatively wet climate with warm summers and cool to cold winters. Founded in 1983, Halmstad University is a higher education institution offering bachelors and masters programs in various fields of study. In addition, it conducts Ph. D. programs in three fields of research, Information Technology, Innovation Science and Health Science, Halmstad University has more than 9000 students, including 245 exchange students and 163 international programme students
5.
Daylight saving time
–
Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
6.
Central European Summer Time
–
It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
