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The council is chaired by the Minister for Social Affairs, a ąuorum is constituted whenever morę than half of the members are present, and the resolutions are passed by simple majority. Although these resolutions are merely recommendations and thus not legałly binding, Ministers have until now always taken their decisions in accordance with the resolutions. Analogous to this council, the other two levels of organisation of the labour market agency also have their advisory committees which decide in regional and local ąuestions. The prime function of these committees is to gather information and to encourage contact and cooperation between businesses, employee represen-tatives and local interest groups within each region.

There are several points which make the framework of the Labour Market Agency quite different form that of other countries. Especially the method of raising financial resources for active labour market policy should be mentioned. Virtually all of its means are drawn from the Unemployment Insurance Fund, which is financed through a percentage charge on wages and salaries. This levy, borne by employers and employees at equal shares, is fixed by the Minister of Social Affairs. In doing so, he cannot, however, exercise unrestriced discretion. He has to set the charge such that the estimates for incomes balance those for expenditures of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. The persistent slack of the economy sińce 1979 forced the Minister of Social Affairs to raise the charge from 2 per cent (1980) to 4 per cent (1983). However, most of this increase had to be spent on unemployment benefits rather than on active labour market policy (Pichelmann/Wagner 1984, p.215).