Mundus International Monthly Policy Review June 2013 June 2013 Policy Review The Almedalen Week: casual style - serious intent On June 30, politicians, companies and Mundus International calendar organizations will gather once again in Visby, on • • • the Baltic island of Gotland, for the Almedalen June: Week. For one week a year, the normally rather rd quiet park of Almedalen is at the absolute centre of 2-3 : Barents Regional Committee Meeting, Kirkenes Swedish politics and media coverage. The annual 6th: Sweden’s National Day Almedalen Week is the focal point of Swedish 8th: Royal wedding: H.R.H. Princess Madeleine and Mr politics and the park turns into a gigantic open-air Christopher O’Neill – traffic restrictions in Stockholm lobby-fair, which includes politicians, journalists, 12th: Party leader debate, the Riksdag activists, lobbyists and NGO workers, to name a few. 13-14th: G8 Summit, UK It wasn’t always that way. In the summer of 1968, 13-15th; Tällberg Forum, Tällberg Gotland’s local Social Democratic chapter asked 14th: Foreign Affairs Council, Brussels the then Prime Minister Olof Palme to make a 19th: The Riksdag spring session ends speech in Almedalen. Mr Palme and his family had spent their summer holidays on Fårö (an 19th: NIER Economic Tendency Survey island just north of Gotland) for several years. In 19-21st: International Economic Forum, St Petersburg that first year, the stage was a lorry platform at th: Kruttornet and there was an audience of a few 25-28 Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, Strasbourg hundred. Still, it was a beginning of one of the biggest political events in the world. 27-28th: European Council, Brussels July: Every summer from 1968 onwards, Mr Palme used the Almedalen Park to give speeches on the island. 30 th June-7th July: Almedalsveckan 2013, Gotland In 1982, the Social Democrats organized the first 1st: Lithuania takes up Presidency of the Council of the EU official Almedalen Week where renowned st speakers held seminars on political and economic 1 : Croatia joins the EU issues. The event proved so popular that it became 2nd: Meeting of the Nordic Ministers for Cooperation, Visby an annual affair, with other political parties 22nd: Foreign Affairs Council, Brussels eventually joining in. Soon the lobbyists started turning up because all the country’s most 29th: Stockholm Pride powerful politicians were there. From the mid- August: 1990s, players other than the political parties have 19th Schools start also chosen to hold seminars during Almedalen 1 June 2013 Policy Review Week. The number of seminars has multiplied in recent years from 6 in 1998 to around 1,800 events in 2012. Last year, an estimated 17,000 persons took part – audiences at speeches not included! For Visby, the Almedalen Week has given an important boost to an economy already geared towards tourism. It has been reported that Visby now lives off of trade, education…and the Almedalen Week. In addition, the media coverage is of significant value, as it includes not only political coverage but also peripheral reporting on Gotland as a whole. The political events this year The Municipality of Gotland hosts the Almedalen Week, but the Swedish parliamentary parties are the main organizers and are at the heart of the week. Each political party represented in the Riksdag is allotted its own day according to a rolling timetable. 2011 was the first year with an 8-day Almedalen Week. This was due to the inauguration of Sweden’s eighth Riksdag party, the Swedish Democrats. Typically, the parties’ days start with participation in the TV morning shows and various breakfast meetings. The parties organize different types of seminars and events during the day, or in connection with the speech, which is usually held at 7 pm in the evening. This year, the schedule for the party leaders’ speeches is: • Sunday, 30 June, 7 pm: Kristdemokraterna (Christian Democrats) Göran Hägglund • Monday, 1 July, 7 pm: Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats) Jimmie Åkesson • Tuesday, 2 July, 7 pm: Miljöpartiet (Green Party) Gustav Fridolin • Wednesday, 3 July, 7 pm: Moderaterna (Moderate Party) Fredrik Reinfeldt • Thursday, 4 July, 7 pm: Vänsterpartiet (Left Party) Jonas Sjöstedt • Friday, 5 July, 7 pm: Folkpartiet (Liberal Party) Jan Björklund • Saturday, 6 July, 3 pm: Centerpartiet (Centre Party) Annie Lööf • Sunday, 7 July, 11 am: Socialdemokraterna (Social Democratic Party) Stefan Löfven 2 June 2013 Policy Review July 2 will be the Nordic Day in Almedalen this year. The Minister for Nordic Cooperation, Dr Ewa Björling, will meet her Nordic ministerial colleagues and talk about the future of Nordic cooperation. There will be a Nordic defence debate and seminars on issues such as young entrepreneurship, youth unemployment, and sustainable fashion. Comment: Politicos speak of “the Almedalen spirit”. And indeed, the political week on Gotland certainly has a special atmosphere, which anyone interested in Swedish and Nordic politics should experience at least once. Sweden’s accessibility and openness are at the heart of the concept of Almedalen, and is present in the myriad of speeches, seminars, breakfasts, networking get-togethers and political stunts that take place here. The week is associated with an informal ambiance: a combination of vacation, festivities and serious political business. In fact, the social aspects of networking are as important as the official Almedalen agenda, with politicians and journalists mingling together. Sweden’s growing income inequality Each month the Mundus Policy Report looks as different aspects of economic performance. This month we turn our focus to income inequality. Since being elected in 2006, the right-of-centre Alliance government has declared jobs the top priority, guiding Sweden to full employment, thus reducing exclusion. In doing so it has made a concerted effort to transform Sweden’s welfare state, via tax cuts for low and middle-income groups and reducing unemployment, sickness and disability benefits to create an incentive for individuals to return to work. An explicit, but perhaps undesired, outcome of this policy has been the incentives. In May, the OECD issued a report, which highlighted the long-term trend of increasing inequality across the majority of countries as a consequence of globalisation and other factors. 1 As the chart below2 shows, most countries experienced widening inequality over a 25 year period of about 10 per cent as measured by the Gini coefficient3, and in the past three years this trend has been accentuated by the effects of the Financial Crisis. However, the report showed that income inequality in Sweden was growing at a faster rate than any other country within the 34 member OECD club. Between 1983 and 2008 the incomes of the wealthiest 10 per cent of Swedes rose by 2,4 per cent p.a. while those of the poorest 10 per cent went up by only 0,4 per cent p.a. (the OECD averages were 1,9 per cent and 1,3 per cent respectively). Thus, the pro- growth government policies that have been lauded internationally for their positive macro-economic 1 http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/OECD2013-Inequality-and-Poverty-8p.pdf 2 http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/49499779.pdf 3 Gini index measures the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption expenditure among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI 3 June 2013 Policy Review outcomes, have also been direct contributors to rising income inequality in Sweden, alongside globalisation, youth unemployment and Sweden’s high immigration intake. To put the issue into perspective, it should be noted that the incomes of the bottom decile are still increasing, and that Sweden’s starting point was as the most equal OECD country in the early 1990s, and even now it remains a leader in this regard. Equality is a key factor in social harmony – a key concern given Stockholm’s recent riots. The government has stated that “the ultimate aim of policy is full employment. Having a job of one’s own gives an individual a sense of security and community, as well as freedom to shape his or her everyday life. A weak foothold in the labour market risks leading to long-term exclusion”.4 The policy direction is to create “stronger incentives to work and lower thresholds for labour market entry … effective means to increase employment.” Judged by this measure the government appears to be having some success, with the proportion of the population in long-term unemployment or on long-term sick leave falling.5 4 http://www.government.se/content/1/c6/21/43/77/5d506e58.pdf 5 http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/pdf/nd/nrp2013_sweden_en.pdf 4 June 2013 Policy Review Comment: This reshaping of Swedish society is an important political issue, and is likely to be a major theme at the election next year. While sticking to his governments’ policies, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt is keen to lay the blame at the feet of the Social Democrats, pointing out that “a large portion of these growing divisions took place during Göran Persson's time in power”. Meanwhile, politicians from the Swedish Left, which ruled the country for most of the post-war period, blamed the trouble on social spending cuts introduced by Mr Reinfeldt. Defence Advisory Committee presents its security policy report On May 31, the cross-party Defence Advisory Committee presented its detailed security policy analysis to the Government.6 The Defence Advisory Committee includes representatives of the parliamentary parties and experts from the government and from government agencies. The Council's mission is to continuously monitor the security policy developments abroad and assess threats and risks with the objective of reaching a broad consensus on Sweden's security and defence policy.