Paris, 03/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - Notre Europe, the think tank led by Jacques Delors, published just prior to the start of the six months of Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union - the first Swedish Presidency - a study entitled "The European Debate in Sweden". The report was written by Olof Petersson, former Professor at the University of Uppsala and currently Director of Research of the think tank Economy and Society - SNS- in Stockholm (Studies and Research No 12). Olof Petersson, who points out in the Swedish Presidency's programme the "regrettable lack of arguments for institutional reform", states that this think tank has proposed a number of institutional reforms, including the adoption of a European Constitution replacing "the opaque set of treaties, directives, decrees and other acts that make the working of the EU impossible for citizens to understand". He goes on to note that "for now, participants in the debate on the European Constitution hear only the silence of the Swedes".
Mr Petersson cites Prime Minister Göran Persson who, last October, called for a stronger role for the Council, saying this was the best way to draw citizens of Member States closer together (Mr Petersson added that, in the longer term, the functions of the Council Secretariat and the Commission could be merged). Mr Petersson sees in these remarks a contradiction on the part of a "small state", which comes out in favour of the intergovernmental model. Such a model usually has its most fervent supporters among big States and the small States are generally very attached to the Community institutions. Another contradiction, according to Mr Petersson: the Swedish Government defends both the intergovernmental model and transparency, whereas the pure intergovernmental model is "synonymous with traditional, secret diplomatic negotiations". Further, Mr Petersson finds it "astounding" that the "crucial priority" of the Swedish Presidency - enlargement - does not go hand in hand with recognition of the need for further institutional reform.
The author, who analyses the attitude of the different Swedish political parties to European integration, also highlights the considerable role played by unions, and in particular LO, the Confederation of Workers' Unions, which has a close relationship with the Social Democrat Party. And he recalls that the LO Congress last September recommended, in a vote of 263 to 143, Sweden's entry into the euro, but adopted a "more ambiguous" resolution, setting conditions on such participation. Mr Petersson also states that the country's three main trade union organisations (LO, TCO and SACO) announced in a joint statement published last November their priorities for the Swedish Presidency -the social dimension, consolidation of employment policy, greater transparency in an enlarged Union and gender equality - , noting that these priorities will be on the agenda of the informal summit in Stockholm next March, the first summit in the wake of the Lisbon European Council.
Jacques Delors, meanwhile, notes in the preface that, for European opinion, "Sweden is an enigma: its highly envied model of participatory social democracy seems to be leading it (...) to a systematically peripheral culture within the European Union". For Mr Delors, the debate on membership of the EU (and EMU) is "one of the rare failures" of Swedish-style democracy insofar as it reveals a gulf between the people and the political elite; this failure also reveals "a deeper crisis of the Swedish model (...) faced with the challenge of globalisation", notes the former Commission President, noting that there, as is often the case, "political Europe appears to be both the agency of revelation and the possible solution to a problem of which it is not the cause".
(Notre Europe: 44, rue Notre-Dame des Victoires, 75002 Paris. Tel: 53 00 94 40. E-mail: notreeurope@notre-europe.asso.fr Internet: http: //http://www.notre-europe.asso.fr ).