Danish Council Of State
The Council of State (Danish: Statsrådet) is the privy council of Denmark. The body of advisors to the Danish sovereign, the council is a formal institution, with largely ceremonial functions. Chaired by the sovereign, the council comprises all cabinet ministers and the Crown prince or hereditary princess when he or she is of age. When unavailable, the sovereign is represented by the regent or Lord Protector (Danish: Rigsforstander).
Unlike its British and Canadian counterparts, membership of the council does not carry along with it an entitlement to a special title or form of address.
In its beginnings, the council was a place of debate amongst the ministers over government policy. However, since the formation of real political parties at the beginning of the 20th century, these debates were moved from the council to informal ministerial meetings where government policy could be coordinated – usually held every Wednesday. As a result the primary function of the council today is to grant royal assent, which is done by the counter-signatures of the sovereign and a minister. Before granting the assent, a relevant minister explains the general aim of the bill brought before the council. According to section 22 of the Danish constitution, a bill must be granted assent within thirty days of its passing by parliament, at the latest, for it to become an Act. The sovereign cannot be held responsible for any granted assent.
Besides enacting parliamentary bills, as a rule all government bills also have to have formal approval by the sovereign and a minister before introduction to parliament. Approval is also given by the council to all of the sovereign's actions as head of state.
Council protocols are secret.
Read more about Danish Council Of State: The Council and The Constitution, From Council Presidium To Prime Ministers Office
Famous quotes containing the words council and/or state:
“Daughter to that good Earl, once President
Of England’s Council and her Treasury,
Who lived in both, unstain’d with gold or fee,
And left them both, more in himself content.
Till the sad breaking of that Parliament
Broke him, as that dishonest victory
At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty,
Kill’d with report that old man eloquent;—”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“... the idea of a classless society is ... a disastrous mirage which cannot be maintained without tyranny of the few over the many. It is even more pernicious culturally than politically, not because the monolithic state forces the party line upon its intellectuals and artists, but because it has no social patterns to reflect.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)