Template talk:Germany districts North Rhine-Westphalia

The correct description for a Landkreis seems to be County. The Deutscher Landkreistag calls itself German County Association. This really makes sense. In the context of the EU the federal system of Germany is structured as follows: 1) municipalities, which are local self-government bodies 2) counties, which are also local self-government bodies 3) districts, which are only an administrative level of the administration of the Bundesland, therefore they are better called “regional district” 4) federal states also called regions in the European context or land This wording is used in the European context by the German County Association, the German Association of Town and municipalities and the German Association of Cities which are the official representatives of the local government bodies. This Nomenclature makes a clear differentiation between the self-government bodies, which are granted by the German constitution and the merely administrative level of the regional district. According to this definition the kreisfreie Stadt should be called County Borough. The term County Borough, even though it is now historical, describes perfectly the fact that this is a city or town independent to a county and with the self-governance competencies of a county. Therefore I have changed this article. --Gereonmc (talk) 17:05, 25 March 2009 (UTC)