Issues in European Union From Sweden Perspective - Essay Example

Order 119673 ISSUES IN EUROPEAN UNION FROM SWEDEN PERSPECTIVE The European Union which was being initiated in the year 1951 as theEuropean Coal and Steel Community had only six nations as its members. When Britain and Denmark became part of the Union, it came to be called as the European Economic Community. Later several nations became its members and with the due process of time, the European Economic Community was being changed as the European Union and Sweden which is the country under discussion in this paper joined the Union on January 1, 1995. Gender equality is being considered to be one of the issues which are being articulated by the European Union and Sweden has for has a long duration formulated and implemented policies such as the "jmsthldher, jmlik" which indicates women's equality. With regard to the education arena also Sweden was of the opinion that the knowledge as well as competence as being important which necessitates the policies in order to do away with the elements which have impact on the students learning atmosphere. Hence Sweden had brought about Skr, 2002-03 providing equal amount of opportunity in order to formulate skills which are not stereotyped in gender terms. (Gender - Sensitive and women friendly public policies -Sweden: Analysis of Policy Context and Policies) During the presidency of the European Union, Sweden claims that top priority is given to gender equality and implemented the EU policy for greater equality between women and men. (Sweden carried EU gender equality work forward) Open Method of Co-ordination -- OMC has also been an important issue which is being promoted by the European Union and its implementation is being significantly emphasized among the member nations. Due to the activities of the European Union, Sweden has brought about various reform processes focused on mobilizing the labor, re-modeling the social benefits as well as the pensions schemes. With regard to the employment arena also, Sweden turned its efforts towards enhancing the work incentives for some of the groups in a number of ways in order to better the social partnerships at the national level and hence minimize the gender gaps in terms of employment and pay scales. In order to promote the European Union policies as well as to satisfy the particular forms of recommendations of the commission, Sweden depended on the national culture and traditions, yet leads to an active work-oriented approach. (European Policy Co-ordination and the OMC) As a measure of the economic unification within Europe, an agreement which is called Treaty on European Union was being entered upon calling for the formation of economic and monetary union -- EMU as well as a common unit of exchange and also for the purpose of setting up the criterion for the level of participation in EMU. Thus, the European Union has created a common currency called as the Euro, firstly in the 12 member nations and further extended to other members also. Sweden delayed joining of the EMU along with the other member countries such as Britain, Denmark, as a result of the concern of the loss of national Sovereignty. Sweden is extremely open towards international trade, exports as well as imports amounting to two-thirds of GDP with half of the trade within the Euro-zone. Thus, Sweden believes that on joining the EMU, Sweden's trade with the Euro-zone would rise to over fifty percent resulting in considerable boost to the Swedish output as well as welfare. (EMU and Swedish Trade) The basic underlying goal of the European Union with regard to the economic and social cohesion is being stated in the Treaty of Amsterdam. Within this treaty the community states its will in order to formulate and to carry forward the actions in order to strengthen the economic as well as social cohesion as an effort to promote the complete harmonious growth as well as minimize disparities among the various arenas of progress of the various regions. In the year 1995, Sweden had got a resolution being adopted unanimously for recognizing the concept of territorial cohesion, and its significance within the European context. In addition the inclusion of territorial cohesion under article 16 of the Treaty of Amsterdam indicates that the services which are of general economic interest are being considered as being part of the co-operative values of the EU. Hence several nations inclusive of Sweden have promoted studies in order to interpret the services of the economic interest. In Sweden, even though the term is not considered to be known, the central concept of the Swedish Society is cohesion and so it considers that income supports which promote the individuals to get the advantages from the opportunities which are being provided by society as well as structural interventions into the labor market. (The concept of territorial cohesion in Europe - Its genesis and interpretations and link to polycentric development) The cross border cooperation between the various members' states of the European Union has been contemplated comprising the Euro-region. It is pointed towards the level of protection of the environment, solving of the various social issues etc. The Euro-region is being characterized not only by its level of young age on the European scale but also is based on the fact that it connects between the regions which belong to six countries, of which Sweden is considered to be one. Sweden constitutes to be one of the largest but which is the least inhabited places that are being characterized by the level of natural environment as well as well-developed modern industry and also in relation to the advanced communication system. Thus, Sweden is of the opinion that joining the Euro-region would be a greater opportunity to have development on the economically weaker regions of the Union. Also as being a member of the Euro-region, Sweden could try to participate in the cross border cooperation in more effective terms as a result of the system transformation. (The meaning of the Cross-Border cooperation in the development of border regions (On the Example of North-Eastern Poland)) One of the most important tasks of the euro being contributing to stability and discourage the speculation, Sweden feels that euro will have a profound impact on the economic situation and hence it must join and make it a success. Further as taken by the Swedish Socialist Democratic Party, the economic and monetary union is not a one-time event but an undertaking for the future forcing integration from the EMU. Thus, Sweden foresees the necessity for an act on economic and industrial change ensuring improved functioning by encouraging economic reforms while offering the people security in change and it professes to recognize that a fair economy is a productive one. (European challenges: A Swedish perspective) On the immigration side, the freedom of movement is one of the emphatic points of the community policy and the member states are expected to abide by the rules there on that are supranational. In this regard Sweden did feel much change since the rules of immigration of Sweden contemplate free movement of EU citizen much before the Sweden joining the European Union. However with Sweden joining the union, it became a full party to EU efforts regarding the abolition of border controls, common visa policy, asylum and immigration. Regarding considering the asylum application, Sweden adopted the Dublin Regulation and made it as Swedish law. In order to determine as to which country is to process and application for asylum under the terms of the Dublin Regulation, the member states have set up Eurodac, a central electronic database for comparing the fingerprints. Sweden is linked to the database located in Luxembourg. (EU and the migration policy) The European Union's common agricultural policy, 'CAP', contemplates the trade with agricultural products be free within the Union and that price and policies be set co-operatively by the member countries based on the price level within the sphere of the EU's boundaries. CAP also has several kinds of environmental, regional as well as policy measures that the member states get benefited. The goal of agricultural policy viz., CAP, is to increase the agricultural productivity ensuring decent standard of living for the agricultural community, stabilize the market, and protect employment facilities with consumer access to goods at reasonable level of prices. The Sweden's Left Party strongly believes that it is quite necessary to allow the new members of the EU to participate in the agricultural policy in total terms without assigning any special regulations with regard to a lower level of compensation. Sweden also considers that it is not quite reasonable enough that certain of the farmers who are within the union are compensated for the lower level of prices while the others do not share this amount of compensation despite the comparable level of prices. (A report from the Swedish Left party's working group on agriculture: CAP - Swedish Left Party Report) One of the consequences which Sweden could be able to foresee is that a reform in the agricultural policy could quite dampen the enhancement without probably preserving the amount of the cost level. Thus it results in an enhanced member charge for Sweden and this occurs due to increased level of expenses for the common agricultural budget. Thus we could understand that the Swedish Left Party opposed it. It should also be noted that the Swedish Left Party proposes that an abolishment in terms of direct and in favour of an increased amount of effort which is being focused on environmental and rural development can contribute to an improved level of situation for farmers in the applicant countries. It further proposes to develop clear cut goals at the community levels with regard to environment, reliable amount of foodstuffs and animal welfare; to transfer the amount of resources from general aid to that of directed measures for environmental as well as rural development within the framework or structure of the Rural Ordinance; abolishing of the measures which support the extent of export aid. (A report from the Swedish Left party's working group on agriculture: CAP - Swedish Left Party Report) As a founder member of the European Free Trade Agreement -- EFTA, the Swedish government thought that if other EFTA countries were seeking Community membership, Sweden should also do so. Though Sweden entered into a free trade agreement with the Community, did not show any enthusiasm for full-fledged membership. The reasons are two folds. Firstly, Sweden felt that country's stand on neutrality would be at stake when joined the Community. Secondly, the government felt that the Swedish welfare system would also be threatened. The strong feeling of Sweden is that the autonomous welfare system prevalent was superior to that offered by the Community. In early 1990's the Swedish government started thinking about the impact of Swedish membership in the Community. (Sweden and the European Community) The economic issues like enhancing the economic growth, increased inward investment and the levels of investments rising were factors that made Sweden to consider the European Union membership. Politically, Sweden expected to gain impact in the European Union decision-making process and make an impact in the progress of the other countries. As a new member, Sweden has had very less time to satisfy the Maastricht convergence criteria. Sweden participated in the first phase of the Economic Monetary Union -- EMU but decided not to adopt the common currency. As the Swedish people opposed, the Swedish government has been waiting for economy to stabilize and to be more aligned with the euro-zone, and the unemployment rate falls so as to take a decision to join Euro. (Sweden and the European Community) The consequences of a common currency for stabilizing the economy depend on the type of macroeconomic shocks. A disturbance in financial markets could be transferred to output and employment by means of a floating exchange rate. The stabilization policy cost of a common currency increases since domestic monetary policy cannot be used to stabilize the asymmetric shocks. The earlier freedom of countries to carry forward independent monetary policies and absence of constraints on fiscal policy might have given way to policy shocks that will not prevail in the EMU. Sweden having moved to a monetary policy regime of inflation of the same type as was initially adopted making a quantitative inflation target for the CPI at the rate of 2 per cent in Sweden. (Macroeconomic policy, wage setting and employment - what difference does the EMU Make) Normally, the monetary exchange rate policy is considered to be witnessed by means of demand shocks as being a substitute for the nominal price as well as wage flexibility. If the normal prices as well as wages are considered to be rigid, a real exchange rate adjustment must try to attain via nominal exchange rate depreciation. The inflation target regime includes limits with regard to the changes being made in nominal exchange rate that can be a substitute for normal price as well as wage flexibility. It hence makes the presupposition that the central bank considers inflation to be at constant levels at every point of time, which may not be considered to be realistic. Hence in practice, it is to define the level of tolerance margin around the concept of inflation target. Thus, Sweden makes way for such a margin which is based around the inflation target. Any major shock would lead to temporary deviation from the specified amount of toleration limits. Sweden, with its floating rate, would tend to stipulate that as an issue of common interest, the exchange-rate policy shall tend to be applied. As an example with regard to exchange rate changes, Sweden has financed a small payroll tax cut by increasing the levels of VAT with the intention of tying over a deep recession in the year 1993. The possibility of the internal exchange rate changes in the EMU discussion has been avoided and this was because of high pay roll tax rates which make it as a viable policy option. Thus, it could be said that Sweden taxed the blue-collar workers between the range of 30 and 40 percent. (Macroeconomic policy, wage setting and employment - what difference does the EMU Make) References A report from the Swedish Left party's working group on agriculture. CAP - Swedish Left Party Report. Retrieved from http://www.spectrezine.org/europe/cap.htm Accessed 7 April, 2006 Calmfors, Lars. Macroeconomic policy, wage setting and employment - what difference does the EMU Make Retrieved from http://www.iies.su.se/publications/seminarpapers/657.pdf Accessed 7 April, 2006 EU and the migration policy. Retrieved from http://www.migrationsverket.se/english.jspenglish/emigration/emigrpo.html. Accessed 7 April, 2006 European challenges - A Swedish perspective. Retrieved from http://www.rewi.hu-berlin.de/WHI/deutsch/hre/hre2/persson.pdf Accessed 7 April, 2006 Euro policy coordination and the OMC. Retrieved from http://www.kent.ac.uk/wramsoc/conferencesandworkshops/conferenceinformation/espanetconference/europeanpolicycoordination.pdf Accessed 6 April, 2006 Rose, Andrew. K. EMU and Swedish Trade. 9 November, 2001. Retrieved from http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/arose/SEMU.pdf Accessed 6 April, 2006 Runardotter, Mari; Mrtberg, Christina. Gender Sensitive and Women friendly public policies - A comparative Analysis of their progress and impact. Retrieved from http://www.equapol.gr/Pubs/SWEDEN%20DL%204.pdf. Accessed 6 April, 2006 Sweden and the European Community. Retrieved from http://www.library.pitt.edu/subject_guides/westeuropean/wwwes/mspr-sw.html Accessed on 6/04/2006 Sweden carried EU gender equality work forward. 7 February, 2001. Retrieved from http://www.eu2001.se/news/news_read.aspiInformationID=16417 Accessed 6 April, 2006 Tatzberger, Gabriele. The concept of territorial cohesion in Europe - Its genesis and interpretations and link to Polycentric development. Retrieved from http://www.raumplanung.uni-dortmund.de/rgl/gemeinschaftsrecht/territor_kohaesion/the_concept_of_territorial_cohesion_in_europet.pdf Accessed 7 April, 2006 The meaning of the Cross-Border cooperation in the development of border regions (On the Example of North-Eastern Poland). Retrieved from http://www.geo.lt/metrastis/34/PDF/139-151.pdf Accessed 7 April, 2006 Read More