VIEWS FROM THE CAPITALS

Summer 2010

by Fredrik Langdal

When Swedish voters elect a new four-year parliament in September, they will also be determining the course of Sweden’s future European policy.

The last five years have seen two increasingly cohesive blocs dominate the Riksdag; the ruling centre-right coalition and the red-green opposition. And in the run-up to the coming election, the EU may prove a divisive issue between the blocs and within the red-green opposition. There are four centre-right parties in the current government, with the main conservative party being the dominant one. One of the ruling coalition’s publicly declared strategies is to put Sweden at the heart of Europe. Swedish officials made a good impression with a well administered EU Presidency in the second half of last year which added weight to the government’s claim that Sweden is committed to Europe. Others will judge whether the government has succeeded in its eurocentric aims but they did frequently repeat that they wanted to bring Sweden closer to Europe.

In the lead up to September’s election, the red-green opposition that is made up of the Social Democratic Party, the Green party and the Left Party will be campaigning on several joint platforms. And although the grouping is united on many issues, each party takes a different line on the EU. The greens are critical of many EU policies, and until 2008 had wanted Sweden to leave the EU. The Left Party still wants Sweden to leave, whereas the Social Democrats have more in common on the EU with the centre-right coalition than their two prospective coalition partners. Agreeing a coherent stance on the EU is therefore going to be a considerable challenge for the red-green coalition and the government parties will do their best to highlight the discrepancies among red-green parties on EU issues.

But, in spite of the apparent differences between parties on EU issues, it is clear that they agree on certain EU fundamentals. In general the parties don’t favour further communitarianism, and lean more towards voluntarism and inter-govermentalism. The EU’s 2020 and the Baltic Sea strategies receive cross-party support and all the parties are in favour of radical reforms of the EU’s budget and of the CAP.

But differences remain. A red-green coalition government would clearly be more sceptical of the EU than its predecessors, so if it got in it would change a number of key policy positions. It will try to open negotiations on the EU’s posting of workers directive, which it thinks creates unfair wage competition, and is also likely to be more critical of Turkey and Israel. Although the red-green opposition does not preclude Swedish participation in the EU Battlegroups initiative, it doesn’t want Sweden to go on leading the Nordic one. Above all, a red-green coalition government would be less interested in arguing that Sweden’s place is at the heart of Europe.

But if the centre-right coalition is re-elected, little would change except that the coalition’s pro-EU stance means that sooner or later they will have to address the question of joining the single currency, while a red-green government is certain to keep the euro off the agenda.