Last January, just four months after forming a new right-wing coalition government, Sweden assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union for the third time since joining the bloc. The task? Setting the political agenda and directing the debate among the Member States, a task that Spain will take care of when, from next July 1, it exercises the presidency until the end of the year, as established by the rotation system.
“It was a bit scary at first, but also very entertaining,” says the Swedish Minister for European Affairs, Jessika Roswall, during a conversation with various Spanish media, including elDiario.es, at the residence of the Embassy of the Nordic country in Madrid. Two and a half months after passing the baton to Spain, he addresses the Swedish passage for the presidency and other issues, such as the status of the request of the Nordic nation to enter NATO, blocked by Turkey and Hungary, after the admission of the neighboring Finland.
During the German presidency, it was the European recovery funds and during the Czech one, the energy agreements. Asked about the great advances of the Swedish presidency, Roswall cites two so far: “Maintaining unity” within the Member States on issues such as sanctions, which he describes as a “greatly important achievement” in the midst of the crisis over the war in Ukraine , and put the Union’s competitiveness high on the agenda. “The EU has spoken too little about competitiveness and now it is on the high-level agenda. The European Council has really discussed competitiveness in the long term. This is important and it is also important that the Spanish and Belgians continue this debate,” he points out. . This is one of the priorities that the Swedish presidency set for itself along with security, green and energy transitions, and democratic values and the rule of law, as she explains.
“We are meeting the calendar. We have achieved a lot, but we still have a lot to do,” acknowledges Roswall. “Both the Swedish and Spanish presidencies, and partly the Belgian one, are at the end of the Commission’s mandate, which means that our presidencies are under strong pressure to conclude many of these files. And when we started, we counted up to 350 files, and we will not finish them all. We leave a lot to Spain and then Belgium. But there will be elections to the European Parliament, so all the politicians will go into election mode in the next semester,” he says.
What other pending tasks will Spain inherit at the helm of the presidency? “One is the migration pact – on which we work very hard, but they are hard discussions and negotiations – and economic and budgetary issues, because we have high energy prices and we must talk about the coming winters and there are proposals such as the design of the market electric,” he says. “We are making progress and we hope to also conclude some of these files before the end of June”, says the Swedish minister, who met during her visit to Spain with Pascual Navarro and Gonzalo García, Secretaries of State for the European Union and for the Economy and Support to the Company, respectively.
On April 4, Sweden watched as Finland, a neighboring country with which it intended to go hand in hand on its way into NATO in a historic turn after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, went off on its own and formally became a member. of the military alliance. The barrier was raised after the last go-ahead that was missing, that of Turkey, which continues to delay the admission of Sweden – which requires the unanimous approval of all the nations of the bloc.
“It was to be expected. In Sweden and Finland, the process has been fast and also in Spain, in the 28 countries that have accepted our application. In that sense, it is positive. We are happy that Finland has been accepted as a member. That makes “Making Europe safer definitely makes Sweden safer and of course Finland. Of course we would like to be members too. And we hope to be sooner rather than later,” said the Swedish minister.
While the Finnish flag is already flying at the headquarters of the military alliance, Sweden is still waiting and the dispute persists. At the NATO summit held last June in Madrid, both countries signed a trilateral memorandum with Ankara that included the objections of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who continues to insist that Sweden has not complied with demands to extradite people Turkey considers related. to terrorist organizations, especially from the Kurdish sphere. Stockholm says it has implemented the Madrid agreement, including tougher anti-terror laws, while saying some of Ankara’s other demands are impossible to meet. “From our point of view, we have fulfilled our part of the agreement with Turkey,” says the Swedish minister.
Erdogan, who faces a tough battle for re-election in mid-May, does not lift the blockade, in which Hungary accompanies him, which in its case alleges Swedish criticism of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for the erosion of the rule of law. Asked about the Hungarian position, which is causing confusion in the West, Roswall does not enter into assessments.
It also avoids speculating about a timetable for the possible green light for Sweden’s entry into NATO, whose Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, wants it to take place after the Turkish elections and before the Vilnius (Lithuania) summit, which will be the July 11. “It is not in our hands. It depends on when Turkey and Hungary think they can accept our request. We hope it will be soon, but I cannot answer, because it is not in our hands,” he replies. “When Sweden becomes a member, the whole northern region will be more secure. It’s good for Sweden, of course, but it’s also good for NATO that we’re all members. If you look at the map, it’s obvious that Sweden would fit into this security. in the region. I would like to be able to respond,” he says.
What risks does it entail that countries like Turkey, criticized for its human rights record, set the pace in internal decisions? The Swedish minister responds: “One of the reasons why we prioritize the rule of law during the Swedish presidency is because these are really important values that we have to uphold for EU members and also in other communities. And that’s why I will continue to defend them. And we, the Swedish government, will continue to defend democratic values in every possible way.”
In October, Sweden’s Moderate Party, to which Roswall belongs, agreed to a pact with the Christian Democrats and the Liberals to form a minority government, after the right-wing bloc won a majority in the elections. The center-right coalition relies on support from the Swedish Democrats, an anti-immigration party founded by neo-Nazis, and other far-right members to secure a majority in Parliament, putting it in a position to influence government policy from the barrier without participating in the Executive, something that years ago would have been unthinkable in Swedish politics.
Support from far-rights cast a shadow over Sweden’s inauguration of the EU Council presidency, raising concerns about how much they would influence and make their presence felt in Europe. “My party works with all parties in the Swedish Riksdag, on the right and on the left. In Swedish politics there is a consensus very often that we try to come together with a common vision on many issues. Not on all of course, but we have the tradition of working together and sometimes, to everyone’s surprise, we have agreed with the left party, which is not so common,” says Roswall, asked how far-right support for work in the presidency has affected of the EU.
“We signed a four-party deal and so far I have to say it’s worked very well. It’s written very carefully, it’s quite dense, framing what we need to work on together. So now, after six months, we’ve also learned to work together”, how much. “We are different parties, we have things we don’t agree on, but we work together and come to common views. It works very well. And when it comes to European issues, for me personally it is also very important to work to have close contact with the other parties in Parliament. So far, it has worked very well on the issues that were raised. For example, on migration, climate… we have worked as planned,” he says.