Activation as a process Implementation and governance

The idea behind the decentralisation in 1994 was to make the labour policy decision as close to the individual and the enterprises as possible, and by doing so to make sure the local labour market policy matched the local needs. The state drew up the economic framework and laid down the basic rules, and then the regional labour market councils prioritised the efforts locally (for driving forces behind the reform see Madsen and Pedersen 2003). 

In 2007 a structural reform resulted in a reduction in the number of municipalities from 272 to 98. In each municipality employment services and local authorities at a joint job centre now cany out the servicing of both insured and non-insured unemployed. Moreover, from now on the regional labour market councils performed the functions of advisors and not as decision makers. Decisions on target groups and use of measures were now left to the authorities at the job centres. 

In the autumn of 1987, the Liberal Government approached the Social-Democratic Party to agree on changes in the labour market policies including the abolition of the benefit cuts for the very long-term unemployed introduced in 1985. 

As part of this agreement between the Government and the Social Democrats, the unemployed persons right to activation including education/training was improved. The LO (The Danish Federation of Trade Unions) had a direct influence on the design of the law through their close relationship with the Social Democratic Party while the DA (The Danish Employers Confederation) did not seem to be officially involved. 

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