Signs of change in Sweden?

The Swedish EU-debate is showing healthy signs of revival. In Saturday’s Expressen, 50 young Swedish representatives of liberal and conservative organisations and political parties criticised their centre-right Government’s “uncritical” position on the EU. In addition to listing several areas of EU-reform, the group called on the Swedish Government to reject the proposed EU Constitution which, they argued, “in several respects resembles a Social Democratic manifesto”.

And yesterday, former Swedish Speaker of Parliament, Social Democrat Björn von Sydow, had an article in Dagens Nyheter arguing that national parliaments need to become ”a more effective counterbalance” to the EU Commission. He suggested a provision in a revised constitutional treaty, whereby one quarter of the bloc’s parliaments acting in unison could veto an initiative from the Commission. “I have myself seen that [parliaments] can work in such a coordinated way”, he said.

Much needed contributions to a debate that for too long has been stuck in a tedious yes-or-no, right-left mode.