
How to respond to the consultation on a proposed new Swedish law
Sweden has an impressively thorough system for developing legislation, and this includes a 'remiss' consultation stage where anyone at all, even you, has the right to send in a submission outlining their views and proposing changes. Here's how to make a submission.
Advertisement
Does the government have to put new laws out to consultation?
Yes. The Instrument of Government, or regeringsformen, one of Sweden's four constitutional laws, imposes a beredningskrav, or a "requirement to go through a preparatory stage", on all new government legislation.
"When preparing government tasks, necessary information and statements shall be obtained from the relevant authorities," the text of the Instrument of Government reads. "Information and statements shall also be obtained from municipalities to the extent necessary. Associations and individuals shall also be given the opportunity to express their views to the extent necessary."
READ ALSO: How do new laws get made in Sweden?
Who is asked to make submissions when a law is put out to consultation?
Once the government has received the conclusions of the government inquiry into a proposed new law, it sends the report and its proposals out to consultation or remiss to to the relevant government agencies or organisations, municipalities and other stakeholders, who can then submit remissvar, or "responses".
The government department responsible for the new law will draw up a list of organisations and individuals who it specifically asks to make a submissions.
These are called the remissinstanser and the full text of their submissions are published automatically on the part of the government website devoted to the new law.
Advertisement
Can individuals and organisations give submissions even if not asked to do so?
Yes. The latest government instruction on how consultations work in the country stresses that "each and every person who has an opinion" has the right to make a submission.
"It is not only those remissinstanser who have received requests to make submissions who can give their opinion on the proposal," it reads. "The possibility to express a point of view on a proposal is always open to each and every person who has an opinion."
All submissions, both invited and not invited, remain on the record within the government department and become part of the underlag, the underlying decision-making process behind the new law.
Advertisement
How do you make a submission?
You can find the consultation you want to contribute to on the list of all current ongoing consultations on the government's website.
At the bottom of consultation document for the law you want to comment on, there will be an email address given to which any submissions should be sent.
For the consultation launched at the end of January on "Stricter demands for Swedish citizenship", for example, submissions should be sent to ju.remissvar@regeringskansliet.se by April 1st, with a copy sent to ju.L7@regeringskansliet.se, and the consultation's code Ju2025/00118 included in the subject line.
The submission should be sent in two versions, one in an editable format such as Word, and the other in a non-editable format, such as a PDF file.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Local Sweden
7 hours ago
- Local Sweden
Europe's largest CO2 capture facility is being built in Stockholm
Work has begun on one of the world's largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) sites in Stockholm. When finished, it is expected to be able to capture more than the Swedish capital's annual road emissions. Advertisement The new plant will have the capacity to capture and store more than 800,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, which is more than the annual emissions from the Swedish capital's road traffic, said Anders Egelrud, CEO of utility Stockholm Exergi, which is leading the project. It "is going to be the largest project of this kind in Europe and one of the largest in the world," Wopke Hoekstra, the European climate commissioner, told reporters as construction began. The investment amounts to 13 billion kronor ($1.4 billion) and the technology will be used to separate, liquefy, and permanently store CO2, generating so-called negative emissions. Stockholm Exergi, which produces heat and electricity for the Swedish capital, already uses residual products from the forestry industry, such as wood chips. The new facility will enable the capture and storage of carbon dioxide released from their own production. Funding comes from subsidies and loans, including from an EU fund and the Swedish state, as well as purchases of emission certificates by private companies. Advertisement The captured CO2 will be temporarily stored on-site before being shipped to Norway for permanent storage in the "underwater" CO2 cemetery Northern Lights, off the coast of Norway. In practical terms, after capture, the CO2 is liquefied and transported by ship to the facility near Norway's Bergen. It is then transferred to large tanks, before going through a 110-kilometre (68-mile) pipeline to be injected into the seabed, at a depth of around 2.6 kilometres. "In the Nordics, you simply have the geography to relatively easily ship it and store it," Hoekstra told AFP. CCS technology is complex and costly but has been advocated by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), especially for reducing the CO2 footprint of industries like cement and steel, which are difficult to decarbonise. The world's overall capture capacity is currently just 50.5 million tonnes, according to the IEA, or barely 0.1 percent of the world's annual total emissions.


Local Sweden
8 hours ago
- Local Sweden
Immigrants contribute more to the Swedish economy than people born in Sweden
New figures from Sweden's National Institute of Economic Research (NIER, or Konjunkturinstitutet in Swedish) have revealed that people born outside of Sweden represent a greater net gain to the Swedish economy than those born in the country, with Indians topping the list. Advertisement What was the report about? The report, which the institute was tasked with putting together on behalf of the government back in 2023, investigated among other things the net contribution of people born outside of Sweden compared to those born in Sweden. The government tasked NIER with calculating 'the costs of immigration', telling them specifically to look at the net cost or benefits of immigration for labour migration and asylum seekers, even listing the average cost or benefit per person and per country of origin. The most recent data used in the report is from 2022, as that was the last full year of data available at the time it was written. This was calculated by subtracting each group's public expenses – for example the cost benefits and public services they have received – from the income the state receives from them in taxes. Essentially, a positive net contribution for a particular group means that that group's resources are effectively redistributed to a different group through public finances. Some groups, for example children and the elderly, generally have a negative net contribution, as they pay less tax and use expensive public services like schools, preschool, pensions, care and healthcare. Others, for example people of working age, generally have a positive net contribution, effectively earning money and paying tax to fund other groups in society. For immigrants, NIER said, and refugees in particular, the time spent in Sweden is important when it comes to net contributions, as it can take time to get established on the Swedish labour market and start paying tax. Advertisement How did the figures differ between groups? In 2022, the most recent figures in the report, around 2.2 million people living in Sweden were registered as utrikesfödd, literally born outside the country. This group had a slightly positive contribution to public finances of six billion kronor, or around 0.1 percent of GDP. In individual terms, that's an individual contribution of around 2,700 kronor per person. People born in Sweden had almost exactly the opposite figures, with a net negative contribution of -6 billion kronor, or -0.1 percent of GDP. Their individual contribution per person was negative at around -700 kronor (this is lower than the figure above as there are more of them). Sweden's immigrant population is roughly one third refugees (around 789,000) and two thirds 'other immigrants' (1.4 million). When the group of people born outside Sweden was split into these two groups, the picture was slightly different. Refugees had a negative net contribution of -22 billion kronor, or -0,4 percent of GDP. For other immigrants, this figure was much higher, with a positive net contribution of 28 billion kronor or 0.5 percent of GDP. This was by far the highest positive contribution of any group in the study. On an individual basis, 'other immigrants' contribute an average of 19,800 kronor per person to the Swedish economy. NIER writes that even though the 'refugee' group as a whole had a negative net contribution, there were substantial variations within the group (as there were with other groups). When this group was limited to people of working age, the ten percent contributing the most had an average net contribution of almost 500,000 kronor per person, while the ten percent contributing the least had an average individual negative net contribution of -300,000 kronor. Advertisement In general, the most expensive cost to the state for people born within Sweden was pensions, followed by childcare, schooling and health and social care. This is mainly due to the fact that most foreign-born people move to Sweden as adults so Sweden does not need to fund their schooling. The most expensive posts for immigrants were financial benefits, child benefits and unemployment insurance, especially when it comes to refugees, as well as fees related to the justice system and integration. How did the figures differ by country of origin? NIER listed contributions by country of origin for immigrants from countries with at least 15,000 foreign-born residents in 2022. The country with by far the highest net contribution to Sweden was India, with Sweden's 56,000 Indians contributing 6.6 billion kronor to the Swedish economy in 2022 or 119,000 kronor per person. That's more than the entire negative contribution of those born in Sweden (-6 billion). Diagram from NIER's report showing the net contribution of different groups to the Swedish economy in 2022. (Figure is per person in thousands of kronor). Image: NIER The next highest group, according to NIER, was 'non-European Anglo-Saxon countries', more specifically the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, followed by former Yugoslavian countries, Iran, new EU member states who joined in 2004 or 2007 and 'Other Western Europe', defined as Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, the UK, Germany and Austria. Chile was next, followed by China, Lebanon and Thailand. As far as groups with a negative contribution to state finances were concerned, Swedish-born people had the smallest negative contribution, costing the state around 6 billion kronor, or 700 kronor per person. Next up were people from Iraq, followed by Ethiopia, 'other Nordic' (Denmark, Iceland and Norway), and Afghanistan. Rounding out the groups at the end of the graph were Eritrea, Somalia and Syria, with Finns costing the state the most per person in 2022 (-13.7 billion kronor, or 99,000 kronor per person). This is primarily due to the fact that many Finns who arrived as labour migrants between 1950 and 1970 are now middle aged or older, meaning that they have high costs for pensions, healthcare and elderly care. Advertisement NIER does also warn that the figures in its report should be taken with a pinch of salt – certain expenses and incomes can either not be calculated directly or the available data is not broken down on an individual level, such as figures for schools, healthcare, infrastructure or indirect taxes like employer fees, so many of them are based on assumptions. The figures also do not take into account other affects of immigration on the Swedish economy, such as higher productivity or effects on the labour market. Has there been any criticism of the report? The report has received criticism for essentially being a 'talking point order', essentially an attempt by the government to get NIER to publish figures supporting its hard line on immigration. In an article in Expressen, Daniel Suhonen and Tony Johanson from union think-tank Katalys, argued that the figures in the report were a 'cold shower' for the government, which the day before it was released chose to highlight only one figure in a press conference – the cost of refugees to the Swedish economy. Advertisement Suhonen and Johanson also criticised the way the figures were reported, arguing that many immigrants have lower than average incomes and pay lower than average tax, but that this is not the same as them 'costing' the state money. 'The problem isn't that they show profits or costs, rather differences in tax payments and use of welfare, but lower tax payments is not a 'cost',' they argued, among other things highlighting the fact that immigration can benefit the country in other ways than purely through higher tax income. 'If you claim that NIER's figures show that refugees are a 'cost', then you also have to admit that those born in Sweden also represent a 'cost' – and that right now, those born outside Sweden are the ones keeping Swedish public finances afloat,' they said. 'We suspect that's not what the government and Sweden Democrats were asking for when they ordered these calculations from NIER.'


Local Sweden
9 hours ago
- Local Sweden
'War crime': Swedish foreign minister warns Israel against 'starving civilians'
Israel's refusal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza is causing civilians to starve which constitutes a war crime, Sweden's foreign minister said. Advertisement In early June, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said deadly attacks on civilians around aid distribution sites in the Gaza Strip constituted "a war crime", while several rights groups including Amnesty International have accused Israel of genocide. Israel has vehemently rejected that term. "To use starvation of civilians as a method of war is a war crime. Life-saving humanitarian help must never be politicised or militarised," Maria Malmer Stenergard said at a press conference, adding that it was ultimately up to a court to decide whether Israel was committing war crimes. "There are strong indications right now that Israel is not living up to its commitments under international humanitarian law," she said. "It is crucial that food, water and medicine swiftly reach the civilian population, many of whom are women and children living under wholly inhumane conditions," she said. Sweden announced in December 2024 it was halting funding to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA after Israel banned the organisation, accusing it of providing cover for Hamas militants. Swedish International Development Minister Benjamin Dousa told Thursday's press conference that Stockholm was now channelling aid through other UN organisations, and was "the fifth-biggest donor in the world ... (and) the second-largest donor in the EU to the humanitarian aid response in Gaza". Advertisement The country's humanitarian aid to Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023 currently amounts to more than 1 billion kronor ($105 million), while funding earmarked for Gaza for 2025 totals 800 million kronor, he said.