The Swedish model and the European integration

Résumé du document

Sweden officially joined the European Union on January 1st, 1995. Since then, Sweden has been a part of the European Union, but it is said to be one of the most Euro-sceptical members of the Union. What are the causes for this strong Swedish Euro-scepticism? Is it linked to the special social structure of Sweden, characterized by the well-known universal welfare state, and the Social-Democrat dominated state, and linked to the importance of the trade unions in Sweden, as Sweden has approximately 80 percent of Union members? So we can wonder what the consequences of Sweden's entrance in the European Union were, and focus mainly on its economic aftermath. To what extent can the roots of the Swedish Euro-scepticism be found in the Swedish model? Are the doubts over Europe linked to the economic and social results of the European Union membership?

Extraits

[...] The adhesion of his country to euro could be one of his main claimed objectives. Bibliography -Hansen, L. and Waever, O European Integration and National Identity. London, Routledge. -Kautto, Mikko and Kvist, John. February 2002. Distinct or Extinct? Nordic Welfare States in the European Context. [...]

[...] Last we can study the Swedish conceptions of Europe and their paradoxes. To have a clear look upon the point of view of the main political forces of Sweden most of the scholars focus only on the political parties that are represented in the Parliament and that is also what we are going to do. There are seven parties represented in the Riksdag, which is the Swedish unicameral Parliament. They all kept approximately the same position since the referendum held on November 13th The Left Party and the Greens were opposed since the beginning to the integration of Sweden in Europe. [...]

[...] There are many other characteristics of the Swedish model. One of the most important, not at the socio-economic level, is the traditional neutrality of Sweden in international relations. Sweden had traditionally decided to remain neutral when there were important conflicts; that was the reason why its territory didn't suffer from foreign occupation since more than 200 years. This neutrality policy had been during the Cold war the main obstacle for the entrance of Sweden in the European Economic Community. Indeed the Swedish leaders decided not to integrate the European Communities because they thought that the political aim of this new kind of international organization was to important, and thus being part of it would have been taking part to the Western block, in opposition to the Communist block led by the Soviet Union. [...]

[...] This was one of the reasons why Sweden decided to join the European Union, because it was believed that the Swedish economy would be more protected and would easily find commercial partners if it was member of an important free trade organization such as the European Union. In 2005 the GDP of Sweden was approximately 348.1 billion dollars, which means around dollars GDP per capita. The growth rate of Sweden in 2005 was 2.7 percent, which was quite good compared to the rest of Europe. The unemployment rate was 5.8 percent, which was really better than before the entrance in the European Union, as at the time of the economic crisis of the 1990s it reached more than 8 percent. [...]

[...] The main indirect effect of Swedish membership of the European Union was a “successful reorientation of macroeconomic policy”, that means the reform of the fiscal and monetary policies in Sweden. This reform was done because Sweden had the intention to join the European Union, and it had very good results as we have seen it before the public deficit has decreased, as well as the public debt, and at the same time there was a fall of inflation in Sweden. [...]