Swedish public opinion on EU Affairs has undergone considerable changes since 1995 and Swedes are gradually becoming more positive to membership. According to the latest survey there is, for the first time since 1995, a majority of Swedes are in favour of membership in the European Union.

In October 2010 the European Commission finally released the communication on the 2008/9 review of the EU budget. Professor Iain Begg concludes in his analysis that even though the political obstacles to EU budget reform are formidable, there should be plenty to debate in months to come, for example which expenditures to cut; what to do with the CAP; and a number of aspects related to Cohesion policy.

The Lisbon Treaty has profoundly changed the judicial foundation of the so called comitology. What previously was enclosed in a single treaty article, is now divided in two separate articles and the idea is that the comitology will remain in only one of them.

The debate about a social Europe has lasted for a long time but led to modest results. The Lisbon Treaty states, for the first time, that the EU is a social market economy.

Despite ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions, renewable energy use and energy efficiency, the EU was unable to play a central role in last year´s climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Lack of internal coordination was one reason, the EU budget not being adapted to the climate goals another.

There have been large increases in budget deficits throughout the EU, leading to considerable rises in the stock of public debt as a percentage of GDP. The costs of maintaining high debt levels should not exaggerated.

The economic and financial crisis was one of the most important issues handled during the Swedish EU presidency. The outcome, preceded by at times difficult negotiations, was a political decision concerning a new framework for supervision of the financial market in the EU.

The extent to which low-wage trade competition in the service sector with posted workers should be allowed in the EU has been a hot issue recently. In Sweden, the so-called Vaxholm conflict has become the symbol for this debate.

 The common currency, the euro, and the common monetary policy were introduced in the EU in 1999 to improve the internal market, under the slogan “One Market, One Money”. It was expected that the common currency would promote more trade and investment between the countries that joined the European currency union.

The external dimension of the European Union’s policy on migration and asylum has become an increasingly important feature of the Union’s relations with third countries. It is shaped not only by the foreign policy interests of the member states but also by changes in internal politics of the member states.