Ærø Municipality
Ærø Municipality is a municipality occupying the 88 km² island of Ærø in southern Denmark. The municipality belongs to Region of Southern Denmark. The municipality also encompasses Birkholm and the uninhabited islands :da:Lilleø |Lilleø, :da:Dejrø|Dejrø and :da:Halmø|Halmø.
The first mayor of Ærø was Jørgen Otto Jørgensen a member of the Social Democrats political party, until 2005 mayor of Ærøskøbing Municipality. The most populous town is Marstal and the seat of the municipal council is Ærøskøbing.
The municipality was created as a result of the municipal reform of 2007, through a merger of Marstal and Ærøskøbing municipalities. However, the new municipality nonetheless agreed to enter into a "municipal cooperation agreement" with Svendborg Municipality.
The Danish municipal reform was implemented Monday 1 January 2007, but politicians on Ærø were given the go-ahead to unify the island one year ahead of the rest of the municipalities that were merged as a result of the reform. From 1 January 2006 until 31 December 2006 Ærø Municipality belonged to Funen County.
The result is a municipality with an area of 91 km² and a population today of 5,964. In January 1985 8429 people lived on the area of the present municipality, and in January 2006 6873 people. The new municipality belonged to Funen County in 2006 and is part of the new Region of Southern Denmark from 1 January 2007.Politics
Ærø's municipal council consists of 15 members, elected every four years.Municipal council
Below are the municipal councils elected since the Municipal Reform of 2007.
