Sweden does not wish to offset the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU by limiting the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) to 1% GNI and has therefore proposed significant budgetary cuts to the CAP and cohesion policy, specifying this in a government document.
Sweden is known to oppose any increase in the European budget (see EUROPE 11967, 11968). The document, which was published in February and consulted by EUROPE on Tuesday 6 March, is no departure from this position.
Sweden is calling for European investments to be concentrated on cross-border public goods and by making economies of scale, but mainly by significantly reducing the envelopes for the common agriculture policy and the cohesion policy. The Scandinavian member state considers that there is a need to spend better with a tighter budget and tackle the shortcomings in the current European measures and programmes.
Cohesion in the firing line…
For instance, Sweden discusses the cohesion policy at length, stating that it would like to channel this towards the integration of migrants and the reintegration of people who have been excluded from the employment market. The cohesion policy should concentrate on the “regions with the greatest needs”. It calls for a significant reduction in aid to the most developed regions and to avoid any interim provisions. However, the document stresses the need to cover the whole of the EU and to take account of specific regional features, for instance low population density (in Scandinavia, for instance).
Stockholm wants a simplification of the rules at national and European level and proposes returning to pre-crisis co-funding levels, to hand more responsibility back to the member states, the document reads. To achieve this, Sweden highlights the importance of ex-ante conditions for structural reforms. It suggests a differentiated system to monitor the management of structural funds on the basis of the objective and measurable criteria of the risk run.
The document also stresses the importance of territorial cooperation for its cross-border dimension, which clearly illustrates European added value.
… alongside the common agriculture policy
As regards the common agriculture policy, Sweden again calls for a significant reduction in funding and an effective and simplified policy. It proposes sweeping cuts to direct payments, convergently reducing the levels of direct payments between member states. Compulsory co-funding should be considered, according to Sweden, again with a view to passing more responsibility onto the shoulders of the member states. As regards audits and controls, it would like to see a risk-based approach and supports the idea of a system featuring a single audit.
More generally, Stockholm wants to see an end to cross-cutting instruments, preferring to channel efforts into targeted actions. It considers that the distribution of funding should take account of rural development and demographic parameters.
Yes to reinforcing Horizon post-2020
The document calls for an ambitious framework programme for research and innovation once Horizon 2020 comes to an end. The Swedish government considers that the selection criteria should be based on excellence alone, “without regard to any arguments of geography, solidarity or justice”. Stockholm considers that the forthcoming framework programme should focus principally on cross-border projects and those in the form of subsidies, and should support open science. In this context, the European Research Council should remain autonomous, according to Sweden, and the European Innovation Council should be brought into the next framework programme and focus on so-called 'breakaway' technologies.
Poland and Hungary under fire. Sweden stresses the need to reinforce conditionalities in the forthcoming MFF for countries not abiding by common decisions, with reference to migration policy and the rule of law – both areas explicitly concerning Poland, Hungary and, to a lesser extent, the other states of the Visegrád group. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)