Swedes Europe needs to know – POLITICO
Sweden’s term at the helm of the Council of the European Union looks set to be particularly challenging, thanks to a brewing economic crisis created by the war in Ukraine and a busy legislative agenda. Getting countries to agree on a host of issues as the end of the Commission and European Parliament term fast approaches will require supreme diplomatic skills.
Here are the people that Europe needs to know before the Swedish presidency.
Lars Danielsson: Head of Negotiations
As Swedish ambassador to the European Union, Danielsson will steer the Swedish ship through the country’s third presidency of the Council of the EU. The career diplomat with more than four decades of experience will lead 200 officials in Brussels to tackle some of Europe’s most pressing challenges, including keeping the bloc united in its support for Ukraine and limiting the rise in energy prices, as well as dozens of other laws in the making.
Danielsson is no stranger to mediating European deals on controversial issues. The former Secretary of State for EU Affairs suffered his country first presidency in 2001when Sweden worked to bring countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into the EU.
Beyond the EU, Danielsson has gained diplomatic experience in Geneva, at the UN, Beijing, Hong Kong and Seoul. He also knows Stockholm’s political corridors very well: he was twice a foreign policy adviser to prime ministers.
He will need all that knowledge to navigate what is likely to prove a tricky presidency. With EU elections around the corner in 2024, Sweden’s top diplomat in Brussels since 2016 and his team will have to work twice as hard to finalize dozens of laws under the leadership of a new government in Stockholm.
“The challenge for us is not to get bogged down by crisis management,” Danielsson said at a European Policy Center event in November.
Jessika Roswall: First time EU minister
Roswall has made his goals as Sweden’s new Minister for Europe clear: turn her country into a “leading force to be reckoned with” again.
A former lawyer specializing in family and criminal law, Roswall was elected to Sweden’s Riksdag from the centre-right Moderate party in 2010. She rose through the ranks to become the party’s spokesperson for EU relations in 2019. She is also a keen (and handsome) skiers who have competed for the Riksdag’s ski team.
The free trade defender who became a minister for the first time in October will have little time to prepare for his role in the EU presidency but has stated that she felt “as prepared as possible”. Roswall, who also counts Nordic affairs in his portfolio, will work within the prime minister’s office.
She will try to push Sweden’s priorities: increase security for EU citizens; stopping organized crime; accelerating efforts to limit climate change; doubling the EU’s competitiveness; and to protect the fundamental values of the Union.
Roswall has said that while Sweden is expected to be impartial, there will be room “to put a certain national stamp on the presidency and focus on issues that are in the interests of both Sweden and Europe”.
However, there are concerns in Brussels that this “national label” comes with a far-right slant, as Roswall’s coalition government is dependent on support in parliament from the Eurosceptic Sweden Democrats.
Christian Danielsson: Veteran EU advisor
As State Secretary to the EU Minister, Danielsson will act as Roswall’s advisor and work with the coordination of the Swedish presidency of the EU Council.
Danielsson is a Brussels bubble veteran: He has worked in all three EU institutions and has built up a voluminous contact book in the process.
He was responsible for enlargement, or accepting new member countries into the bloc, during his country’s first presidency in 2001. And he was Sweden’s permanent representative to the EU during the country’s second presidency in 2009.
In 2021, he was asked by European Council President Charles Michel to do so Become his envoy to oversee sensitive mediation talks in Georgia to resolve a political conflict between the government and the opposition leaders. The brokered deal was hailed as a success.
The nomination came after working as the Commission’s Director-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR). He was also Vice President Günter Verheugen of the European Commission Chief of Cabinet, responsible for relations with Turkey and competitiveness. Before becoming State Secretary, he was head of the EU Commission’s representation in Sweden.
Ylva Johansson: Hausse commissioner
Sweden’s Commissioner for Home Affairs Johansson will have a prominent place during his country’s presidency. Even if she is a social democrat, she has it embraced many of Stockholm’s new priorities, from fighting organized crime to securing the European Union’s external borders and helping Ukrainian refugees in the bloc.
Johansson has a great understanding of the inner workings of Swedish politics as a former legislator. She has also been minister for employment and integration, minister for health and education.
In Brussels, she has built a reputation as a bullish politician, pushing for her files to give more power to Europol and combat online child sexual abuse material. Her combative approach has worked well: she was instrumental in quick intervention by the Commission to secure a historic agreement to provide protection and rights to Ukrainians fleeing their war-torn country.
Away from politics, Johansson is one honorary member of Hammarby football club in Stockholm — although she also seems to have one weak point for Liverpool.
Johansson will also rely on her head of government, Åsa Webber. Webber, a Brussels insider, started working at the Swedish Permanent Representation in 2005 and was Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU from 2014 to 2019.
Gertrud Ingestad: HR manager
Do you want to secure a high and powerful job at the European Commission? It doesn’t hurt to be on good terms with Gertrud Ingestad, director general for personnel and security.
Since 2020, the Swede has overseen the recruitment policy, training and working conditions for approximately 32,000 permanent employees and contract employees at the European Commission.
Ingestad got her foot in the commission’s door in 1995, when she started as a translator. Before becoming the Commission’s head of HR, she headed the IT department at one time 82 percent of staff at adviser level were men.
She took over the helm of human resources on the same day Belgium entered its first lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic. She has since led Labor policy changes to push Eurocrats to bid farewell to their offices – it’s about increasing distance work and the use of shared desks in the open plan.
Some of her goals have been to increase gender equality in the Commission, increase the use of digital tools and make the institution climate neutral by 2030. As the Commission begins to implement comprehensive technological laws such as the Digital Services Act, Ingestad must also attract the best candidates to do so.
If you run into Ingestad with a shotgun and a pack of dogs, don’t be (too) alarmed. She hunts game birds with her three short-haired Weimaraner hunting dogs: Viktor, Max and Charly.
Jessica Polfjärd, Karin Karlsbro, Sara Skyttedal: The European Parliament’s trio
Of Sweden’s 21 representatives in the EU Parliament, three European legislators from political parties in the coalition government have worked on decisive laws for Sweden.
Polfjärd (Moderates, EPP), Karlsbro (Liberals, Renew), and Skyttedal (Christian Democrats, EPP) will be Stockholm’s lifeline to the European Parliament.
Polfjärd has a strong background in Swedish politics. She was a Member of Parliament from 2016 to 2019 where Group leader of the Moderates from 2015 to 2017 and spokesperson for the party on two separate occasions on labor market policy and tax policy.
Polfjärd, who is a European legislator for the first time, has distinguished himself as a fierce defender of nuclear power. She is a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. She has also been leading legislator on national climate targets for EU countries and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and is currently working on a law for the circular economy and the secondary market, as well as one more law make batteries more durable.
Skyttedal (Christian Democrats, EPP) has worked on stricter border rules and a 2022 plan to strengthen the European defense industry through joint procurement. She is a member of the industry, research and energy committee as well as the committee for civil liberties and rights as well as legal and internal affairs. Skyttedal has not shied away from making its positions emoji-clear on Twitter, including on a rumored tax on beloved Swedish tobacco pouches snuff. The Commission later clarified that it had done so no plans to introduce such a tax. Before he entered politics, Skyttedal was a Miss Sweden participant 2006.
Karlsbro is trade coordinator for the Renew group as a member of the committee for international trade. She is also vice-chairman of the delegation for relations with Belarus. She works on EU law on deforestation, a critical file for Sweden, and on batteries. Karlsbro’s position in Brussels and at home will be tricky. The Swedish Liberal Party received harsh criticism in the Renew group after it entered government with the support of the far-right party Sweden Democrats. Karlsbro also has expressed her concerns about the Sweden Democrats’ view of EU politics.
Karlsbro enjoys hiking and protested France’s atomic bomb tests on the South Pacific islands in his youth. She also recently got a cat, but right now family negotiations are underway to name him Karsten, Frans, Bilbo or Stefan.
Wilhelmine Preussen, James Randerson and Tristan Fiedler contributed reporting.