POLITICS WEEKLY NO. 90 WEEK OF 26 OCTOBER 2015 Politics Weekly by Mundus International The week ahead ✦On Monday, the Minister for Environment, Åsa Romson (MP), attends the Environment Council in Luxembourg. The Council will hold the first debate on the review of the EU CALENDAR Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). The Council will also reflect on how to put into practice the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development 'Transforming our world', which was adopted at the NATIONAL UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York.The ministers will also address the issue of • 27th: Energy Commission seminar ”How to emissions from cars and manipulation of emission control systems in cars relating to the air secure well-functioning energy markets?” quality in the EU. Click here to see the agenda. Click here to read the annotated agenda from the Stockholm Swedish government. ✦On Monday, the Minister for International Development Cooperation, Isabella Lövin (MP), • 28th: The Riksbank publishes its Monetary will attend the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg. On the agenda are humanitarian affairs, Policy Report October 2015. Press conference migration, the future EU-ACP relationship and gender in development. Click here to access the on the interest rate decision, Stockholm agenda and background briefs. ✦ • 28th: The Infrastructure Commission presents During the week, the Nordic Council will host meetings i Reykjavik. Several meetings are to its final report, Stockholm be held, the most prominent ones are the 67th Session of the Nordic Council and the ”Northern Future Forum”. From 26-30 October, the Minister for Strategic Development and Week 44: Autumn break (Höstlov) Nordic Cooperation, Kristina Persson (S), will attend the session and the forum. The NB8 • ministers will participate in the Nordic Council session on 27-29 October. The UN Under- INTERNATIONAL Secretary-General, Christian Friis Bach, will introduce the debate on international policy, where the refugee crisis will be addressed in the context of the UN’s global targets for sustainable • 26th: Foreign Affairs Council, Luxembourg development. On Tuesday, the Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven (S), will attend the Nordic Council Session. The Nordic Council is the official body for Nordic inter-parliamentary co-operation and • 26th: Environment Council, Luxembourg the Autumn Session is the annual forum for political debate between the Council and the Nordic governments. On the agenda this year are migration, climate, environment and the situation in • 27th: Nordic Summit with the Prime Ministers, Syria. The Swedish government will also be represented by the Minister for Defence, Peter Reykjavik Hultqvist (S), the Minister for International Development Cooperation, Isabella Lövin (MP) and the Minister for Environment Åsa Romson (MP) in Reykjavik. Ms Romson will attend the meeting • 27-29th: 67th Session of the Nordic Council, of the Nordic Council of Ministers for the Environment. The third Deputy Speaker, Esabelle Reykjavik Dingizian (MP) will participate in the Meeting of parliamentary speakers. The Riksdag delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Nordic Council will be participating in the the Nordic • 28th: General Budget of the European Union Council. for 2016, Strasbourg ✦The Nordic Future Forum will be held on the 28-29th October. The Icelandic Prime Minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, has invited the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, • 28-29th: The Nordic Future Forum, Reykjavik the Prime Ministers of the Nordic and Baltic countries to discuss future trends in northern Europe at the Nordic Future Forum seminar. The themes of the meeting are creative industries • 27-28th: Second meeting of the EU-Africa and simpler, smarter and innovative public services. The Minister for Strategic Development and Socio-Economic Actors Network, Brussels Nordic Cooperation, Kristina Persson (S) will stand in for Prime Minister Stefan Löfven at Northern Future Forum. The programme can be downloaded here. • 29th: Atlantic Stakeholder Platform Conference, Brest ✦On Tuesday, the Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Mikael Damberg (S), is in New York to participate in the UN's 70th anniversary celebrations. ✦On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Minister for Public Administration, Ardalan Shekarabi (S), visits Jordan together with a Swedish business delegation. The purpose of the visit is to develop bilateral trade between the countries and to expand Swedish knowledge of UN procurement and needs in the region. ✦On Wednesday, the Infrastructure Commission presents its final report at a seminar. The mission for the Commission has been to broaden the discussion on alternative forms of how to finance and organise infrastructure in Sweden. The Minister for Infrastructure, Anna Johansson (S), are among the participants. ✦On 28 October, the Executive Board of the Riksbank’s interest rate decision will be published, together with the Monetary Policy Report. The decision on the repo rate will apply from 4 November. A press conference will be held at the Riksbank at 11:00 am will be broadcast live here, ✦This week there will be no meetings in the Riksdag Chamber. POLITICS WEEKLY BY MUNDUS INTERNATIONAL WWW.MUNDUS-INTERNATIONAL.COM POLITICS POLITICS WEEKLY WEEKLY NO. NO. 90 1 WEEK OF 26 OCTOBER JULY 2015 29 from the Riksdag, the political parties, and the News Government and its agencies Cross-bloc agreement reached At a press conference on 23 October, the government and the Alliance parties on immigration and integration announced that they had reached an agreement on immigration and integration and presented 20 measures. The most significant of these was the introduction of three-year temporary, rather than permanent residency, as the norm for new arrivals. This change is temporary and will not affect unaccompanied minors or families with children, who will still get permanent permits. Sweden will also raise the number of ’quota refugees’ from the current 1,900 to 5,000 migrants. The agreement also states that Sweden will request to be part of the EU's relocation programme, which means that some of the refugees who have arrived in Sweden could be redistributed to other EU Member States. Other parts of the deal include speeding up both the deportation of people who have been denied asylum and the asylum application process at the Migration Agency. The agreement states that refugees will be placed in all Swedish municipalities based on a quota system that will take into account aspects such as the size of the municipality, the local labour market, and how many refugees the municipality has accepted to date. To cope with the increase in refugees, an additional SEK 10 billion will be transferred to municipalities this year. Of these grants, around SEK 200 million is given to civil-society organisations. Measures aimed at creating more jobs and the lowering of the barriers for entering the labour market will be put in place, including extended deductions for household services (RUT). Almost half of those employed in RUT companies are foreign-born. The agreement also includes an extension of so-called introduction jobs (YA-jobb). This gives the possibility to include immigrants and employers lacking collective agreements, which is the case for many small businesses. Additionally, there will be more possibilities for internships in the private and public sectors. Migration Agency increase On 22 October, the Migration Agency said in a press release that up to 190,000 immigration prognosis asylum seekers are expected to arrive in Sweden this year, more than twice as many as previously predicted. Unaccompanied minors will make up 29,000-40,000. Last week, 9,687 persons sought asylum in Sweden, according to statistics from the Migration Agency. The sharp increase of asylum seekers coming to Sweden means an acute shortage of housing. The Migration Agency estimates that somewhere between 25,000 and 45,000 accommodation places will be lacking by the end of the year. BRÅ crime statistics The National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) has published an English summary of its 2014 crime statistics. In 2014, 1,440,000 offences were reported, which is an increase of 3% compared to 2013. During the last 10 years, the number of reported offences has increased by 16%. During 2014, 1,450,000 offences were processed and an investigation conducted for 50% of these. The largest categories of offences in terms of numbers were offences against the person and theft and acquisitive offences. The other offences (50 %) processed were dismissed with no investigation. 8,940 persons were admitted to prison, which is approximately the same number as the preceding year, but the lowest number since measures began in 1975. The summary can be downloaded here. Stockholm - third most Stockholm has been named the third most reputable city in the world. The study reputable city from the Reputation Institute ranks cities around the world based on their reputation on the levels of trust, esteem, admiration and respect. While seven European cities dominate the top ten positions, Australia hit the two top positions with Sydney and Melbourne. The 2015 City RepTrak® study is made from surveys from more than 19,000 residents of the G8 countries. The best ranked Asian city is Tokyo (12) while San Francisco is the top U.S. city on the list (24), according to the report. POLITICS WEEKLY BY MUNDUS INTERNATIONAL WWW.MUNDUS-INTERNATIONAL.COM POLITICSINVESTERARNYHETSBREV WEEKLY NO. 90 NR 3 WEEK OF 26 OCTOBER HÖST 2015 2009 PEOPLE WATCH Birgitta Holst Alani U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed the heads of four working groups on Syria. Swedish diplomat Birgitta Holst Alani will head a working group on continuity of public services, reconstruction and development. Ms Holst Alani has previously served as Director of the Swedish Institute in Alexandria and as Sweden’s Ambassador to Baghdad. Anders Jansson has been appointed Head of Administration (Kanslichef) for the Social Democratic Party. Most recently, Anders Jansson was self-employed in the real estate industry and management consultancy.