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The Parliament

The Parliament's main tasks are to process proposed legislation and pass the nation's laws, to control the government's use of power and to process and pass the state's yearly budget.

Større

The legislative process

The Parliament and the government hold the legislative power.

The government and the members of Parliament can propose new laws, but only Parliament can pass the proposed laws (bills). Each year, the Danish Parliament processes around 200 bills.

Laws regulate:

  • how we live together in Denmark
  • what we do together
  • how the public (e.g., public schools and hospitals) must be organized

Legislation is about:

  • what you must do as a citizen
  • what you are not allowed to do, including what you can be punished for doing

The legal text must be so precise that citizens cannot doubt the shared rules of society.

It takes a long time to write a bill. It also takes a lot of legal knowledge to do. The government has many officials in the various ministries to do this work. The parties not in government do not have these resources. They can only have help from the employees of their group offices and from the Parliament Administration. For this reason, the government presents most of the bills.

Before a bill becomes a finished law, it must go through an extensive process.

If an idea for a new law is coming from the government, the drafted bill is:

  1. drawn up in the ministry or ministries that hold the jurisdiction of the bill
  2. approved at a ministerial meeting and in the Council of State
  3. submitted to the relevant organizations, etc., who give feedback
  4. presented in the Parliament Chamber, i.e., the Speaker of Parliament announces the completed bill in the chamber
  5. goes through the first processing in the Parliament Chamber, where the spokespeople from the different parties debate the bill
  6. sent to the committee, where the members discuss it in detail, ask questions of the minister or potentially invites the minister for consultation
  7. goes through the second processing in the Parliament Chamber, where the spokespeople have the chance to discuss the bill again and vote on any potential amendments
  8. in rare cases, processed in the committee a second time
  9. goes through the third processing and voted on in the Parliament Chamber
  10. signed by the monarch within 30 days after it was passed in the Parliament Chamber

The government’s bill will also be sent to the Ministry for Justice, who make sure that it is legally tenable and does not break any other laws or international conventions. Likewise, it is sent to the Ministry for Finance, who assess the financial consequences of the bill.

Through negotiations with the parties, the ministers usually make sure they have a majority voting to pass the bill before it is processed in Parliament.

At least 30 days must pass from a bill is presented until it is fully processed. This is stated in the Standing Orders of the Danish Parliament. This delay ensures that the bill is not passed on the basis of a sudden change in attitude in Parliament. 

When a bill is written and thoroughly edited, the ministers will send it to the relevant authorities, organizations, and associations. They can then submit written comments and objections against the bill. These are called responses to consultation. Ordinary citizens may also submit responses to consultation.

The process with responses to consultation is in place, among other reasons, to ensure that the laws of Denmark are of high quality and account for the problems that are meant to be solved by the laws. The authorities and organizations to whom the bill draft is sent usually have special knowledge or experience that is important to know for the government before the bill is finished and debated in Parliament.

The government usually sends the received responses to consultation to the relevant committees in Parliament before the members of Parliament debate a bill in the Parliament Chamber. The responses to consultation are used by the members of Parliament when they want to assess whether the bill is fair and appropriate and whether something should be added.

The government does not always abide by the objections and comments that appear during the consultation process. For example, it might be the case that the government believes that the critique is irrelevant. It is part of the democratic conduct that the government can and has the right to disregard a response to consultation.

All documents related to the legislative work are publicly accessible on the Parliament’s Danish website.

Each year about 200 proposals for parliamentary resolution are processed in the Parliament Chamber. These can be presented by both members of Parliament and the government (ministers). Most often, however, they are presented by members of Parliament.

Proposals for parliamentary resolution are easier and quicker to prepare than bills. They do not need to go into quite so much detail.

Proposals for parliamentary resolution are formally called suggestions for parliamentary decision. Bills are processed three times in the Parliament Chamber. Proposals for parliamentary resolution are only processed twice.

  • First processing: The spokespeople and minister in the relevant area present their opinions on the proposal for parliamentary resolution and debate it
  • Committee processing: The committee members examine and discuss the proposal
  • Potential second processing: Parliament votes on the proposal in the Parliament Chamber. In rare cases, the proposal is discussed again before voting

Most proposals for parliamentary resolution are presented by the government’s political opposition. The proposals are often worded in a way to require the government to do something. For example, the proposers might require the government to present a new law or change an existent law in a certain way.

Proposals for parliamentary resolution can set a political agenda

Because the opposition presents most proposals for parliamentary resolution, they are often rejected. Sometimes they only make it to the committee processing and are not voted on. In that case, they become void at the end of the parliamentary year.

The oppositional parties use proposals for parliamentary resolution to plant new political ideas. The minister of the relevant area must then discuss the proposal with the spokespeople in the Parliament Chamber. This forces all parties, including the government party/ies to respond to the subjects presented in the proposal.

If the government thinks that an idea presented in a proposal for parliamentary resolution is very good, the idea sometimes recurs entirely or partially in one of the government’s later bills. The opposition party that came up with the idea are not credited. But in a way, they succeed in having some of their politics passed.

When you are elected for Parliament for the first time, you have to sign a declaration that you will abide by the Constitutional Act before you can participate in any parliamentary work.

Members of Parliament have the right to vote according to their personal beliefs and opinions – regardless of their party’s opinions. This is stated in the Constitutional Act section 56: »The Members of the Folketing shall be bound solely by their own consciences and not by any directions given by their electors.« But in most cases, the members of Parliament vote according to what has been agreed upon in the parliamentary party group. This means that all members of Parliament from the same party will vote in the same way.

If the bills are concerned with more ethical questions – e.g., artificial reproduction technology – the parties often release their members of Parliament from any voting expectations. In these cases, they will vote solely according to their personal beliefs.

Parliament's control of the government

Parliament controls whether the government implements Parliament’s laws in the ways in which they are intended and whether there is any abuse of power.

Parliament’s control of the government is not directly stated in the Constitutional Act. But the Constitutional Act section 15 establish parliamentarism. This means that the government cannot have a majority of Parliament voting against it.

In practice, it is the opposition who examine whether the government, e.g.:

  • implements the content of the law and does so in the manner promised by the government
  • abides by the state budget

The opposition has a lot of interest in being critical of the government’s work and in controlling whether there is any abuse of power. If the oppositional parties can find flaws and deficiencies, it gives them an opportunity to explain to the voters how their politics are different – and in their eyes better – than those of the government.

In order to control the government, members of Parliament must have insight into how it works. This insight is gained by, e.g., asking questions of the ministers.

Through questions directed to the responsible minister, the members of Parliament can have the following answered:

  • how the ministry administers the legislation
  • whether everything has occurred in the correct manner
  • whether the legislation should be changed
  • if the government would agree to change the legislation

Members of Parliament usually directs these questions to the ministers within a very limited subject area. Usually, they ask questions related to specific cases, e.g., cases in the media. It might also be the case that citizens, organizations, or corporations have made the members of Parliament aware of a certain case.

Members of Parliament often weave their own opinions in with the questions to clearly state their own political opinions and to show the areas in which they disagree with the government’s politics.

Members of Parliament direct about 15,000 questions to the ministers every year. They do this by:

  • asking oral questions in the Parliament Chamber
  • asking written questions of the minister
  • inviting the minister for a consultative meeting

The committee work

The Danish Parliament has 30 parliamentary committees. In these committees, members of Parliament perform the legislative work in depth and orient themselves within specific subject areas. The committees also control the government by e.g., asking written committee questions and inviting the ministers for consultative meetings.

The committees each have their own political subject area. They correspond more or less to the ministerial subject areas. For example, the Committee for Finance is concerned with the state finances and budgets. The Committee for Finance has the Ministry for Finance as their subject ministry.

All members of Parliament are member of at least one and usually 3-5 of the committees. The committees are constructed so that they reflect the Parliament’s composition. In this way, the relations of power between parties in Parliament are reflected in the committees. Most committees have 29 members. 5 of the committees have fewer members.

The parliamentary committees:

  • examine current bills and proposals for parliamentary resolution within the committee’s subject area
  • direct questions to the ministers, especially the minister within the committee’s subject area
  • examine and debate subjects within the committee's subject area
  • plan and participate in consultations within specific subjects to acquire deeper knowledge of them
  • receive citizens who wish to influence the committee members’ opinions on a certain case, or interest groups, researchers, corporations, etc. with specific knowledge that the committee wants to know about (deputations)
  • go on field trips in Denmark and abroad to learn about the society for whom Parliament legislates or to learn from the experience of other countries – this might be everything from joining the police on patrol to visiting the health system of another country

Usually, the committees meet once a week. At these meetings, they coordinate i.e., the work of the committee. Otherwise, much of the work of the committees happens in writing.

Most documents used in the committee work are publicly available via the Parliament’s website. Cases that involve personal information or questions regarding the safety of citizens are confidential.

As a part of Parliament’s control of the government’s work, the committees can ask a minister to come to a meeting in the committee. The committee does this by asking the minister a question in writing. The minister then comes to the meeting and answers the question. This is called a consultation. Consultation questions can be asked by the committee members and can be about the current legislative work. They can also ask about, e.g., cases in the media.

A consultation can be open or closed. All citizens can go to Parliament and attend an open consultation. The open consultations can also be viewed live on the Parliament's website. Closed consultations cannot be viewed by the citizens.

The committees are continuously visited by deputations. A deputation is a group of citizens or representatives of organizations, corporations, etc. who wish to tell the committees their opinion or knowledge to e.g., influence the committee’s work on a bill.

Everyone can request a meeting with a committee, including ordinary citizens. But the committees do not process individual cases. For that reason, they will be hesitant in accepting a deputation who wishes to discuss a personal case or something similar.

A deputation usually has 15 minutes to tell the committee about a case/subject. The committee members can ask the deputation questions, but not the other way around.

Citizens can always write to a committee. Committee members can then choose to use this information to ask the minister one or more questions about the subject. In this way, the citizens can indirectly influence the political process.

A committee can decide to have a hearing on a bill or a subject within the committee’s subject area. The committee decide themselves which experts, researchers, etc. will sit in the expert panel. The committees usually invite a series of organizations to the hearings. Hearings are usually open to the public.

The Finance Act

The Finance Act is the state’s definite budget for the coming year. The Finance Act outlines which areas will be funded – and how much money the areas will receive. The Finance Act covers the entire state budget of many billions of kroner. For that reason, it is impossible to foresee all expenses ahead of time. This is why the budget is sometimes adjusted subsequently.

The Finance Act is about 500 pages long. The notes on it are about 2,500 pages long.

The political negotiations on the Finance Act take months because the act is so extensive. Many political areas are negotiated in connection with the Finance Act.

According to the Constitutional Act, the government must present a draft Finance Act at least 4 months before the end of the financial year, which means August 31st (the financial year follows the calendar year).

In September, Parliament goes through the first processing of the government’s draft of the Finance Act. This happens during the Finance Act debate. This debate takes a long time and can last long into the night. The Committee for Finance and a series of the other committees subsequently go through the draft Finance Act. Among other things, they ask the Minister for Finance questions about specific parts of the draft.

Alongside the processing in the Parliament Chamber, the Minister for Finance negotiates with the parties in Parliament.

In the third processing in the Parliament Chamber, the parties vote on the draft Finance Act. This voting is usually the longest throughout the parliamentary year. This is because the Finance Act always contains a long series of suggested amendments. These are voted on by Parliament before they vote on the final passing of the Finance Act.

The negotiations and voting are not just about budgets and financial priorities. The parties also use the negotiations on the state budget to show the voters that they are politically responsible.

If the government’s draft Finance Act is not passed, they must resign or call a general election. However, the Finance Act is usually passed with a large majority at the end of December.

Citizens' initiatives

If the citizens believe that something in the law or in society ought to be different, they can create a citizens’ initiative. This option was introduced in 2018.

The process is as follows:

  1. One or more citizens create a citizens’ initiative on the website borgerforslag.dk
  2. The Parliament Administration goes through the initiative within 10 working days
  3. If the citizens’ initiative does not follow the rules, it is rejected. The citizen(s) who have created it will be notified with a short description of the reasons behind the rejection
  4. If the citizens’ initiative follows the rules, it is publicized on borgerforslag.dk, and other citizens have the option of supporting it. You can support a citizens’ initiative in a period of up to 180 days
  5. If 50,000 citizens support a citizens’ initiative, it is passed on to Parliament
  6. The parties in Parliament then come to a decision on who will present the initiative as a proposal for parliamentary resolution. Citizens’ initiatives are not automatically presented in Parliament when they are supported by 50,000 citizens. According to the Constitutional Act, it is only ministers and members of Parliament who can present proposals in Parliament
  7. Parliament processes the citizens’ initiative in the same way as any other ordinary proposal for parliamentary resolution

The working days of members of Parliament

The working days of members of Parliament are filled with political meetings in Parliament and around the country.

Debates and voting on bills happen in the Parliament Chamber. Usually, the parties’ spokespeople in a certain area will debate each other. In the larger debates, such as the opening debate, all members of Parliament participate. There are meetings in the Parliament Chamber about 100 days a year. On top of this, there are many committee meetings and other political meetings and negotiations.

In the Parliament groups, members regularly have meetings to decide, for example, what their politics will be in connection with certain problems on the political agenda. They also discuss strategy and coordinate tasks.

Members of Parliament also have a lot of desk work. They have to read a lot of pages that accompany bills and proposals for parliamentary resolution. They also spend a lot of time answering requests from citizens and talking to media as well as participating in debates on social media.

As a member of Parliament, you need to be in touch with the society for which you are legislating. For this reason, members of Parliament spend a lot of time in political meetings outside Christiansborg, including meetings

  • in voter associations, debate meetings, etc.
  • with representatives from trade and industry and from special interest organizations
  • with citizens who want to talk to them about conditions they are particularly knowledgeable about or a case in which they are involved
  • with researchers who want to share the most recent knowledge in their area

Members of Parliament also visit institutions, workplaces, etc. to have an awareness of the citizens’ everyday life and problem areas.

For members of Parliament, the meetings with citizens mean that they will be able to see cases from many different angles. This gives them important knowledge and input and thereby a better foundation for legislating.

As a member of Parliament, you cannot immerse yourself fully in all the different bills and proposals for parliamentary resolution on which your party must come to a decision. The party’s spokespeople are responsible for presenting the party’s standpoints on certain subject areas.

They do this:

  • during debates in the Parliament Chamber
  • in discussions within the Parliament committees
  • in interviews with the press

The spokespeople in different subject areas must therefore orient themselves thoroughly in all the cases and follow the developments in their subject area. In small parties, each member of Parliament will be the spokesperson in many areas. There are less people among whom to divide the tasks.

Usually, the spokesperson is member of the committee that works in the same subject area. For example, the spokesperson on taxes is usually member of the committee for taxes.

The political spokesperson must be able to defend all the party’s decisions in public debate.

In the annual debates in the Parliament Chamber, the political spokesperson gives the speech on their party’s behalf and debates the spokespeople from the other parties.

The political spokesperson will also – sometimes on a daily basis – be interviewed or participate in political debates on TV, radio, in newspapers or online.

Each Parliament group will appoint a member of Parliament to chair their group. This chair will lead the party’s Parliament group – as opposed to the party leader, who leads the party’s national organization.

The chair of the Parliament group is, e.g., the chair of the party’s group meetings at Christiansborg. When the group’s members of Parliament have discussed a case, the chair of the Parliament group will speak and conclude what the party’s opinion is and how the Parliament group should vote on a bill.

The chair of the Parliament group also appoints the party’s spokespeople and decides who can speak on behalf of the party in the various political subject areas.

The Parliament provides financial support for the Parliament groups. This support is used by the Parliament groups to usually hire a number of employees to help out the members of Parliament. This may be secretaries, information officers, and advisors. The Parliament groups are allocated group support according to their size.

Members of Parliament have their own office in Christiansborg. Some have their own secretary while others share a secretary with one or more colleagues.