The war in Ukraine, economic uncertainty, and a heavy legislative agenda. The Swedish presidency of the Council of the EU has not been short of challenges. As the presidency draws to a close, SIEPS and EPC will gather experts for a hybrid policy dialogue in Brussels on 26 June.

In January 2023 – almost a year after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – Sweden took the helm of the Council at a crucial time for Europe. Partly in line with its previous presidencies, Sweden focused on four priorities: security, competitiveness, the green and energy transitions, democratic values and the rule of law.

While the war in Ukraine and its multidimensional impact remained at the centre of discussions, the Swedish Council Presidency had to deal with parallel challenges including energy security, growing inflation, economic uncertainty, and an already packed legislative agenda. What has been achieved over the past six months? Has the Swedish Presidency been able to tackle other policy issues beyond the collective response to crises? What are the main challenges and opportunities for the upcoming Spanish Presidency as we approach the European elections in 2024?

This hybrid policy dialogue is the final event in the ‘Project Presidency’ series of joint activities organised by the EPC and the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (SIEPS) to discuss policy issues during the Swedish Presidency of the Council.

Register for the event here.

Is Sweden’s state monopoly on the retail sale of alcohol still compatible with EU law? In recent years the Court of Justice of the EU has become more critical of such monopolies. On 14 September Dr Graham Butler (University of Aarhus) presented his SIEPS report, in which he suggests that Systembolaget’s legal justification is hanging by a thread.

State retail monopolies are generally at odds with the principles of the EU’s single market: goods are supposed to move freely from one EU Member State to another. Yet, the use of state monopolies to regulate the retail sale of alcoholic goods has a long history in the Nordic states, and in Sweden Systembolaget has a near monopoly on such retail sales.

In 1997 the Court of Justice of the EU found that the Swedish monopoly was consistent with EU law, providing certain conditions were fulfilled. Are those conditions still met, today? And would the test applied by the Court in any future challenge be the same? Butler examines how CJEU case law has developed in the intervening years, and how Swedish alcohol policy has been partly liberalised, through the advent of online sales and soon, perhaps, sales ‘at the farm-gate’.

Butler’s report concludes that Systembolaget could well be found to be incompatible with EU law, should the matter come before the court again. His findings were discussed and tested by fellow experts in EU commercial law.

A written summary of the seminar is available to download (on the right-hand side of this page).

EU Member States are bound by common rules and standards for migration and asylum, but the states still have discretion over the application of these rules. What are the regulations regarding people seeking protection in the EU Member States and what do Swedish regulations look like in comparison? This was discussed at a webinar, co-hosted by Delmi and SIEPS, on August 19. A special focus was given to the legislation of Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Greece.

Delmi (The Migration Studies Delegation) and SIEPS co-hosted  an open seminar on August 19 in Stockholm. Researchers Vladislava Stoyanova and Eleni Karageorgiou – both at Lund University – presented their research results on the regulations for people seeking protection. Their report 'Asylum Law in a European perspective. How common are the common standards?' was published on the day of the seminar. 

The discussion was moderated by Bernd Parusel, Researcher, SIEPS.

The European Union is commonly seen as, and declares itself to be, a representative democracy. But its democratic system faces challenges at both national and supranational levels. Over the years, European integration has become more politicised and contested, making it even more crucial to think about how to make EU representative democracy fit for the future. The recently concluded Conference on the Future of Europe further stimulated the debate about the future of Europe and EU representative democracy.

At a seminar on Tuesday 21 June 2022 from 09:30–11:30 these issues were discussed by experts with extensive policy and research experience. The seminar marked the publication of the SIEPS anthology ‘Making EU Representative Democracy Fit for the Future’. The essays demonstrate that there are no easy solutions, as they ask what a multi-level representative democracy in the EU should look like and what possibilities it should offer.

In recent decades Europe has been rocked by successive crises often managed, to a large extent, at EU level. Many were external in origin, among them the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is yet another example. At a seminar on 29 April 2022 , four European researchers shared their analyses of how the EU has handled the crises of the 21st century and made assessments of how the EU’s capacity for crisis management can be improved. Their analyses are collected in an anthology that was presented at the seminar.

In recent decades Europe has been rocked by successive crises often managed, to a large extent, at EU level. Many were external in origin, among them the financial crisis, the mass influx of refugees in 2015, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic, which put EU cooperation to the test as Member States initially chose to protect public health in conflicting ways, and at the expense of the ‘four freedoms’. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is yet another example. The war is already having concrete effects on the lives of EU citizens and Europe’s response is to a large extent being coordinated by the EU.

At a seminar on 29 April at SIEPS in Stockholm, four European researchers shared their analyses of how the EU has handled the crises of the 21^st century. They provided perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of EU crisis management and made assessments of how the EU’s capacity for crisis management can be improved. Their analyses are collected in an anthology that was presented at the seminar.

In April, France holds presidential elections. It looks like Emmanuel Macron is going to win. SIEPS hosted a webinar on 6 April to discuss how Macron has changed French and European politics and how the result of the elections will affect the future of the EU.

Webbinarium 6 april: Frankrike – Europa – Macron 2.0? from Sieps on Vimeo.

On 10 and 24 April 2022 France will hold its presidential elections, with parliamentary elections to follow in June. President Emmanuel Macron is standing for re-election and currently looks almost certain to win. This SIEPS webinar on 6 April discussed how Macron has changed French and European politics, and how the results of these elections will affect France’s EU policies and the future of Europe. What is likely to change over the next five years?

The webinar put the changes in the French party landscape into European perspective. In which direction do these developments lead? And how does Macron’s presidency compare to his predecessors?

France has had a high profile in recent years, thanks to its pursuit of strategic autonomy for the EU and its diplomatic contacts with Russia. Putin's invasion of Ukraine greatly affects Europe, and is having a big impact on the French elections, French EU policy and the French Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The webinar also addressed France’s aspirations for the Conference on the Future of Europe, and whether the country will be able to cede more sovereignty to supranational institutions and is willing to accept being outvoted if decisions are taken by majority. Does the country want to embark on changing the EU treaties or does the public retain the Euroscepticism it showed in the 2005 referendum on the Constitution for Europe?

These are just some of the questions that were addressed at this webinar on the French elections in their European context. Four days before the first round of the presidential election, SIEPS tackled them with experts from France and Sweden.