The Swedish government’s proposal to accept Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia in the so-called Schengen agreement will likely be rejected by the parliament in Stockholm. The reason is that the Social Democrats and the Sweden Democrats do not agree on the situation in the fight against corruption and organized crime in these countries.
This means that the Netherlands will not be the only EU and Schengen country not to agree to the expected vote in early December on the issue.
The three countries have the support of the EU Parliament and positive signals from the EU Commission. But national governments can stop the process.
The newspaper “” and Swedish public television reported this development with reference to deputies in the Riksdag in Stockholm. Ardalan Shekarabi, the Social Democrats’ legal spokesman, said that “we think we have to start from Swedish national interests”, he says, and SVT commented that it points to the government’s first defeat in the Riksdag.
Shekarabi recalls that criticism of corruption and organized crime can be found in the European Commission’s two most recent reports on the rule of law.
“We need tools to fight crime and prevent it, as well as good control over who enters and leaves our country,” he adds, recalling cases of exploitation of workers from Bulgaria and Romania in the country. “The question is not a small one. In practice, it would mean removing the controls when entering and leaving Sweden.”
At the end of the week, Shekarabi expressed surprise that the government decided at this moment to present the proposal without consulting two of the four governing parties – the Social Democrats and the Sweden Democrats.
SVT also quotes a member of the law commission in the Riksdag, according to which the Swedish government’s proposal is not covered by the terms of the so-called Time Agreement of October 14, whereby the four parties of the right-wing bloc agreed on October 14 to appoint Ulf Kristersson as prime minister.
The daily newspaper “Dagens Nyheter” reported on Friday that there is disagreement about the extension of Schengen in the Riksdag’s legal committee. Adam Marttinen, committee member from the Sweden Democrats’ group, said: “When it comes to foreign policy and when it comes to issues related to EU affairs, the Sweden Democrats will act according to their own policy, which we have announced in advance. We will not feel limited by the fact that we agreed on other areas at Tid”. The Sweden Democrats’ principled position is that the right of individual EU countries to strengthen border control must be respected and not weakened.
Marttinen also accused the Romanians of creating problems in Sweden: “As far as Bulgaria and Romania are concerned, Sweden is currently facing major problems with citizens from these countries abusing the existing mobility directive and posing a challenge to public order in Sweden.” In the Time Agreement, for example, at the insistence of the Sweden Democrats, there was a demand that the government investigate introducing a national ban on street begging.
He also referred to “widespread corruption and the lack of a fight against organized crime” and said he was concerned that Romania’s accession would move Schengen’s external border to Ukraine’s.
The Sweden Democrats are defined as a far-right, Eurosceptic and xenophobic party, which for years was isolated from other parties. But in the current government, it has been given the opportunity to dictate certain policies because of an agreed special format. According to it, the Social Democrats, the Moderates and the Liberals must govern with a minority government, but the Sweden Democrats give them parliamentary support against appointing proposals for the administration.
In addition, each year the party leaders will decide how they will continue to govern for the next 12 months. The Sweden Democrats have the same weight in decision-making as the other three parties in the government.
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Source: sn.dk