POLITICS WEEKLY NO. 91 WEEK OF 2 NOVEMBER 2015 Politics Weekly by Mundus International

The week ahead

✦The Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, visits London today for a meeting with his counterpart, David Cameron. At the meeting the Prime Ministers will, among other topics, discuss the refugee situation in CALENDAR Europe and the upcoming climate negotiations in Paris. ✦Today, the the Ministry for Foreign Affairs hosts an information meeting ahead of the state visit from NATIONAL Tunisia. The President of Tunisia, Beji Caid Essebsi, will pay a State Visit to 4 to 6 November 2015 at • 2nd: Audience with the President of Chile's Chamber the invitation of King Carl XVI Gustaf. of Deputies, H.E. Mr Marco Antonio Núñez Lozano, ✦The Minister for Finance, Magdalena Andersson (S), will deliver a speech at ’s Bank the Royal Palace Summit at Grand Hotel in today. At the summit, leading industry players will discuss prospects and challenges for the banking- and finance markets. Another focus will be business development and IT issues. • 2nd: The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise Among the guests are Christian Clausen, Group CEO Nordea, and Stephan Leithner, Member of Executive (Svenskt Näringsliv) presents its economic forecast, Board of Deutsche Bank. The Deputy Governor of the Riksbank, Martin Flodén, will deliver a keynote speech Stockholm on the economic situation and why Sweden needs its inflation target. Click here to view the agenda. ✦The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) presents its economic forecast during a • 2nd-3rd: SvD Bank Summit. Stockholm seminar today. Among the speakers are Per Jansson, Deputy Governor of the Riksbank. The Deputy Governor will deliver a speech about the economic situation and also comment on the Confederation of Swedish • 3rd-5th: Kvalitetsmässan 2015, Göteborg Enterprise's in-depth article about wage formation and inflation, which can be found in their economic forecast. 4-6th: State visit from Tunisia • ✦The Swedish Defence University (Försvarshögskolan) presents a report on violent extremism and social media at a seminar held at the university today. The government’s Coordinator against Violent Extremism, • 4th: Swedish Banker´s Association meeting 2015, (S), will participate in the seminar and comment on the report. Click here for further information. Stockholm ✦On Tuesday, the Speaker of the , , receives his Chilean counterpart, Marco Antonio • 4th-5th: VIND 2015, Stockholm Núñez Lozano. On Wednesday, Mr Ahlin receives the Tunisian President, Beji Caid Essebsi. ✦From 3rd to 18th of November, UNESCO hosts the 38th session General Conference in Paris. The • 4th: Swedish Forest Industries federation congress, government will be represented by the Minister for Education, (MP), and the Minister for Stockholm Culture and Democracy, Alice Bah Kuhnke (MP). Ms Bah Kuhnke will deliver a speech at the conference.

✦ • 5th: Q&A Session, the Riksdag Kvalitetsmässan will be held in Göteborg on Tuesday until Thursday. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven (S) will inaugurate the exhibition on Tuesday and the Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, (S) will 6th: Conference: Hållbara investeringar för grön deliver a speech. The government will also be represented by the following Cabinet Ministers: the Minister for • Finance, Magdalena Andersson (S), the Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Information Technology omställning och konkurrenskraft, Rosenbad Mehmet Kaplan (MP), the Minister for Health Care, Public Health and Sport Gabriel Wikström (S), the Minister for Employment Ylva Johansson (S) and Helene Hellmark Minister for Higher Education and INTERNATIONAL Research (S). Click here to access the agenda. • 3rd-5th: World Islamic Economic Forum, Kuala ✦Interpellation debates will be held in the Riksdag on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The Minister for Lumpur Finance, Magdalena Andersson (S), will answer an interpellation about the entrepreneur´s view on the government's tax policy. The minister for Infrastructure, Anna Johansson (S), will answer an interpellation on • 3rd-18th: UNESCO 38th session General Conference, the legislative and regulation on the increased drone/UAW in airspace. The Minister for Employment, Ylva Paris Johansson (S), will answer an interpellation on jobs in the export industry. ✦On Wednesday, the Riksbank Governor, Stefan Ingves, takes part in a panel discussion at an ECB • 4th: Governing Council of the ECB: non-monetary conference on bank supervision and regulations in Frankfurt. On the same day, the First Deputy Governor, policy meeting, Frankfurt Kerstin af Jochnick, is speaking at the Swedish Bankers' Association's 2015 Bank Meeting on financial stability and long-term growth from a central bank perspective. • 5-6th: 12th Asia-Europe Foreign Ministers' Meeting (ASEM FMM12), Luxembourg ✦On 4 November, the Riksdag will debate and decide about, among other things, a tax agreement between Sweden and the UK. • 8th: Pre-COP climate meeting, Paris ✦On Thursday, there will be a Q&A session in the Riksdag. The government will be represented by the following cabinet ministers: Mikael Damberg (S), Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Isabella Lövin (MP), Minister for International Development Cooperation, Anna Johansson (S), Minister for Infrastructure, Mehmet Kaplan (MP), Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Information Technology and (S), Minister for Public Administration. ✦Europahuset organises a seminar on Ukraine and Migration on Thursday. Click here to access the programme. ✦On Thursday and Friday, the 12th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting will be held in Luxembourg. It will be chaired by Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and hosted by the Government of Luxembourg. 51 Foreign Ministers from 30 European and 21 Asian countries as well as the Secretary General of ASEAN are expected to participate in the two-day meeting. Livestreaming for specific parts of the ASEM FMM12 will be available here on 5-6 November.

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from the Riksdag, the political parties, and the News Government and its agencies

The Riksbank keeps the repo rate at The Riksbank has published its Monetary Policy Report for October. The Riksbank −0.35% and purchases government concludes that it's expansionary monetary policy has contributed to a stronger Swedish bonds for a further SEK 65 billion economy, a fall in unemployment and a clear upward trend in inflation since last year. Despite weak international demand, growth in the Swedish economy has been relatively good in recent years. It has largely been driven by domestic demand, with strong consumption and high housing investment. Demand is expected to broaden in the period ahead. Higher international growth will also lead to faster Swedish export growth, which will eventually also increase the need for new investment. Underpinned by the expansionary monetary policy, GDP is expected to grow by nearly 3% on average during the forecast period, which corresponds to a growth rate that is slightly stronger than the historical average. As the population is expected to increase sharply, GDP per capita will grow more slowly than GDP. The bank acknowledges the uncertainty surrounding the large numbers of refugees arriving in Europe, but states that it is too early to judge what the macroeconomic effects of the increased immigration will be in Sweden. In order to underpin the positive development in the Swedish economy and to safeguard the robustness of the upturn in inflation, monetary policy needs to be more expansionary, according to the Riksbank. Therefore it has decided to extend the government bond purchasing programme by an additional SEK 65 billion so that purchases will amount to SEK 200 billion in total by the end of June 2016. The Executive Board decided to extend the government bond purchasing programme by an additional SEK 65 billion and keep the repo rate left unchanged at −0.35%. The decision on the repo rate will apply with effect from 4 November. Click here to access the report.

Swedish Finnish Naval Task Force (SFNTG) to The government announced on 29 October that it will create a joint naval battle group be created with the Finnish Defence Forces. The new battle group, known as the Swedish Finnish Naval Task Force (SFNTG), is envisioned as a cost-effective way to conduct joint crisis- response operations in the Arctic and the surrounding regions. The SFNTG will be staffed by troops trained to operate within the region's climatic extremes. The task force will conduct sea surveillance, exercises and include combined units. It will share infrastructure and be able to transfer operational control of units between the Swedish and Finnish navies. The SFNTG will be interoperable with NATO units. Sweden is also in talks with Finland and Denmark to be able to base naval units in the countries' homeports during peacetime. Click here to read the press release.

Steady public opinion The latest compilation of polls show that there is virtually no change in public opinon, despite the political drama over the past month. The ruling red-greens together with the Left Party remain just ahead of the Alliance parties: 39.5% against 39.2%. But the Christian Democrats remain below the 4% threshold for seats in the Riksdag. The Center Party has the largest increase, up to 7.4%. Torbjörn Sjöström of Novus attributes this to the ending of the December Agreement as well as the continued popularity of the Centre Party leader, Annie Lööf. The Sweden Democrats have dropped in support for the second month in a row, but at 18.3% would still be Sweden’s third largest party if an election were held today.

Government borrowing largely unchanged Sweden’s central government budget will show a deficit of SEK 45 billion in 2015, SEK 33 billion in 2016 and SEK 47 billion in 2017, according to the Debt Office’s (Riksgälden) new forecast. Tax income continues to increase while expenditure, particularly for migration, rises. Overall, this means that borrowing is largely unchanged from the previous forecast. The Debt Office estimates Swedish GDP growth of 3.1% in 2015 and 2.8% in 2016, which is 0.5 and 0.3 percentage points higher than in the previous forecast. In 2017, the economy is expected to grow 2.4%. Click here to read the report by the Debt Office.

Swedish Consulate General to open The government will open a Consulate General in New York in December. The consulate in New York will be staffed by two people from the MFA and a number of locally employed staff. The government is yet to decide who will be appointed Consul General. Next year, the Consulate General will move to new offices, but for now, the Consulate General will use the premises that currently house the honorary consulate.

Nordic Council calls for game-changing The Nordic ministers for Climate and Environment signed a declaration at the Nordic global climate action Council session in Reykjavik last week. The ministers confirmed their commitment to reach an ambitious, global and legally binding agreement at COP21 in Paris that will keep global temperature rise well below two degrees. The declaration also called for actions to slow down the Arctic ice melting and stressed that financial mechanisms are important to help developing countries transition to greener economies. This is why the Nordic countries have pledged a total amount exceeding 1 billion USD to the Green Climate Fund. Read the full declaration here. The Nordic countries will have a shared pavilion at COP21 and will organise events under the heading New Nordic Climate Solutions.

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PEOPLE WATCH Emilie af Jochnick has been appointed Head of Communication and Analysis at the Wallenberg Foundations. She has previously served as Political Advisor to the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt (M), and worked in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Stefan Bergh has been appointed Chairman of the Swedish Sports Confederation (Riksidrottsförbundet). Mr Bergh is currently the Secretary General of the Cancer Foundation, and it is still unclear when he will assume his new position.

Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd The government has appointed Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd Chairman of the Institute for Futures Studies (Institutet för Framtidsstudier). She replaces the current Chairman, Bengt Westerberg, as of 1 January 2016. The new chairman is appointed for six years until 31 December 2021. Ms Elmsäter-Svärd (M) served as Minister for Infrastructure from 2010 to 2014. She was been a member of the Riksdag for many years, but in December 2014, she announced that she would leave politics.

Cecilia Benkö Cecilia Benkö, the Director General of Sveriges Radio, has been elected President of PRIX EUROPA.

Anna Ryott has been appointed Member of the Global Entrepreneurs Council at the UN. Ms Ryott is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Swedfund, the Swedish government's development finance institution. Before joining Swedfund, Ms Ryott was Managing Director of SOS Children's Villages Sweden, and prior to that, she was Deputy Secretary General of UNICEF Sweden. On the business side, she served as Assistant Managing Director at the leading Swedish advertising agency, Storåkers McCann. She has also worked at the management consulting firm McKinsey and the investment bank Hagströmer & Qviberg.

Natasa Mirosavic has been appointed Political Advisor to the Minister for Justice and Migration, (S). Most recently, Ms Mirosavic served as Political Secretary for the Social Democrats in Uppsala County.

Johan Svenningsson The Managing Director of OKG, Johan Svenningsson, has been appointed President of Uniper's Swedish operations and President of Sydkraft Nuclear Power AB, formerly known as E.ON Kärnkraft Sverige AB. Mr Svenningsson will take up his new roles on 1 January 2016.

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