Sweden to insist on crisis and climate change management

Publication date: 11 June 2009

Continuing management of the economic crisis and obtaining an international agreement on climate change will be the two major challenges of the Swedish Presidency, which will take over the reins of the EU on 1 July, succeeding the Czech Republic. It will also highlight justice and home affairs, the Baltic Sea strategy, enlargement, the EU in the world and, lastly, the Lisbon Treaty.

This was explained by Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, on 9 June at the CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies) in Brussels. It will be the second time that this country takes over the Presidency of the Council since its accession in 1995, the first being in 2001. Its new sixmonth mandate will, however, take place in an unusual context: a newly elected European Parliament, a Commission in the process of being renewed, uncertainty with regard to the fate of the Lisbon Treaty, and an economic crisis that is still very much present. With his Conservative party, Moderaterna, and the four-party centre-right coalition that he created to win the 2006 general elections, Fredrik Reinfeldt first intends to tackle the management of the economic crisis, while beginning to approach the issue of a “long term recovery”. It will be a quetion of restoring confidence in the financial markets and reinforcing financial supervision. In this regard, the de Larosière report and the Commission’s proposals on the matter “are a good working basis” for the prime minister, who makes no secret of his support for the head of the EU executive, José Manuel Barroso, in seeking a second mandate. He hopes that, in the autumn, legislative proposals will be put on the table and a political agreement will be reached. Moreover, Sweden intends to start a debate on tax policy in member states and the problem of the increasing unemployment rate, in order that a new, revised Lisbon strategy may be adopted in spring 2010.

Lisbon in last place The second priority is climate change.

Sweden insists on obtaining an international agreement on climate change during the Copenhagen conference at the end of 2009. It hopes to “do its utmost” to work on the “details” concerning, for example, financial arrangements with developing countries and the transfer of technologies.

The aim is to agree on global emission reductions for greenhouse gases and to launch a discussion on the use of “’financial instruments” in terms of climate change policy, such as a carbon tax or the trade of emissions quotas.

Next, efforts will focus on the area of justice and home affairs, with the examination, in July, at ministerial level, of the ‘Stockholm programme’, for adoption by EU leaders in December. It concerns police and customs cooperation, civil protection, judicial cooperation in penal and civil matters, and issues relating to asylum, migration and visas for 2010 to 2014. The prime minister also cites the following as themes: the adoption of a European Baltic Sea strategy, enlargement with the continuation of accession negotiations with Turkey and Croatia, and the role of the EU in the world with the reinforcement of ties with the new US administration and the global management of difficult regions, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East, Iran and North Korea.

Furthermore, summits will be organised with South Africa, Brazil, Russia, China, India and Ukraine.

Lastly, the Presidency will have to deal with preparatory work for the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty if it is ratified in all member states (the second Irish referendum will take place around October time).

If this were to be the case, the future president of the European Council and the high representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy could be appointed in the same breath. As for the president of the Commission, Reinfeldt insists that he be appointed at the June European Council and approved by the Parliament, on 16 July.

Source: Europolitics