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Local Sweden
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Swedish MP slams citizenship freeze as 'what the government wanted'
The Green Party's immigration spokesperson has attacked the government for the 'traumatic' freeze in Swedish citizenship approvals, claiming that rather than being a side effect of onerous new security checks ordered in January, it was the intended result. Advertisement Annika Hirvonen, the immigration spokesperson for the Green Party, said that she feared that Migration Minister Johan Forssell would not be concerned by the near total stop in awards of citizenship in standard cases, a drop The Local was first to report on last week. "I think that this is what they wanted," she told The Local in an interview. "I think the fundamental problem is that the intention behind these new rules seems to be to delay the processing of citizenships, and not primarily because they fear some people might have security problems." In April, just six individuals were granted Swedish citizenship via naturalisation – the principal route for adult foreign nationals outside the Nordic region – a steep decline from the 3,234 approvals recorded in March. EXPLAINED: Eight key questions to understand Sweden's citizenship freeze The Migration Agency told The Local that it has been unable to approve standard citizenship applications for over a month because they have yet to set up routines for the in-person identification, a key part of the security checks the government ordered. The freeze is affecting applicants from all countries, contradicting a pledge from Migration Minister Johan Forssell to The Local's readers in January that work permit holders and people from countries without security risks would be unaffected. Hirvonen said that it should have been obvious from the start that the new security checks being ordered would have an impact on most applicants. "I'm not sure if he's being misleading on purpose or if he just doesn't really understand how these processes actually work," she said. "If you put into place intentional obstacles on processes that are for everyone, of course it's going to affect everyone." In January, the government ordered the Migration Agency to carry out more thorough security checks of Swedish citizenship applicants and in April the agency said in a forecast that the checks would reduce the number of citizenships it would be able to process this year. The new security requirements came after the leaders of the three government parties in November wrote a joint article together with the leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats, pledging to take action to "prevent more Swedish citizenships being issued" until new, tougher citizenship rules come into force in the summer of 2026. Advertisement Hirvonen in January reported the government to the parliamentary Committee on the Constitution over the new demands, arguing that the government was guilty of "ministerial rule", or ministerstyre by seeking to influence the day-to-day decisions of a government agency on individual cases. Ministerial rule violates the Instrument of Government, part of Sweden's constitution. The sudden drop in approvals in April, she told The Local, gave further support to the argument that what the government had done in practice was order the agency to delay the processing of citizenships. "In my opinion, this really speaks to the fact that there are aspects of this that aren't according to the Swedish constitution," she said. Advertisement As a majority of MPs on the committee represent parties either in or supporting the government, she said it was uncertain whether the committee would censure the government. But she said in her opinion, it certainly should do. "It is extremely problematic that the intention pronounced was to delay citizenship applications so that rules that have to do with totally different things, not security, can be put into place for as many people as possible." The Local has contacted the migration minister's office for a comment.
Local Sweden
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Is it legal in Sweden to make laws apply retroactively?
Sweden's Migration Minister Johan Forssell has said he wants to impose new stricter citizenship requirements, even applying them to applications that have already been submitted. Does this count as retroactive and, if so, is it legal? Advertisement Is it illegal to apply a law retroactively in Sweden? That depends. Article 10, Chapter 2 of the Instrument of Government, one of Sweden's four constitutional laws, bars governments from applying criminal law retroactively. "No one may be sentenced to a penalty or penal sanction for an act which was not subject to a penal sanction at the time it was committed," the section on criminal law reads. Nor may anyone be sentenced to a penal sanction which is more severe than that which was in force when the act was committed." This essentially means that you can't prosecute someone for doing something which wasn't illegal at the time they did it. There is also a partial ban on applying tax law retroactively. "No taxes or charges due the State may be imposed except inasmuch as this follows from provisions which were in force when the circumstance arose which occasioned the liability for the tax or charge," the tax passage reads. Again, this essentially means that you can't change the law and claim taxes from prior to the law change if they wouldn't have been owed under the old rules. There is, however, no ban on retroactive legislation in administrative law, which covers things like migration law, including the proposed changes to citizenship requirements. Advertisement How does the government intend to apply its new citizenship law? A government inquiry recommended at the end of January that the new stricter citizenship rules, which among other things will increase the residency requirement for citizenship from 5 to 8 years, should not apply to applications which have already been made. It recommended instead that people who submit their citizenship application before the new law comes into force on June 1st, 2026, have their applications handled under current rules, essentially calling for a period of transitional rules so that people would have their applications processed under the laws that were in place when they applied. But Sweden's Migration Minister Johan Forssell said at the start of February that the government did not intend to follow this recommendation. "I think that it is important when we are overhauling the whole rulebook on citizenship that these changes apply immediately," he said, citing security concerns. Given case processing times for citizenship applications of up to three years, this means that people who have already applied for citizenship now, fulfilling the current five-year residency requirement, are likely to be judged under the eight-year rule by the time their case is decided. They will also have to meet other proposed requirements, like language and culture tests and a self-sufficiency requirement. Advertisement Does this count as retroactive? At a press conference last month, The Local asked Forssell to address the "erosion of trust" in Swedish migration policy due to rules on citizenship and residency being applied "retroactively". "First of all, we're not doing any retroactive changes. That has never been the case," he responded. A "lack of transitional rules" was, he argued "not the same thing as retroactive legislation". Experts The Local contacted were divided over this. Joakim Nergelius, a professor at Örebro University who is one of Sweden's foremost experts on constitutional law, argued that if a new stricter rule applied to applications which have already been made at a time when other rules were in place, this would count as retroactive. "The minister is wrong," he said. "If the application is already made before the law is changed and the new law is then applied, then it's a case of retroactivity." Vilhelm Persson, Professor in Constitutional Law at Lund University, agreed that "in some sense it would be retroactive" if an application were to be judged on rules that were not in place when it was submitted. Advertisement But Jane Reichel, Professor in Administrative Law at Stockholm University, said that within administrative law this did not count as retroactive, and was indeed, standard practice. "The main rule in Swedish administrative law is that the law that is in place at the time that a decision is taken is the law that every agency needs to apply," she said. While governments do in practice add transition rules so that already existing applications are treated under the previous law in place, failing to do so did not count as retroactive legislation. In administrative law, she said, what would count as retroactive would be to, for example, "add a criterion for Swedish citizenship and then apply that to those who already have been granted citizenship". She said this principle applied even in cases where an administrative decision has taken, and then appealed, with the law changing between the point at which the administrative decision is taken and the point at which it comes before a court for review. "Even there, the main rule is that the court should judge the case according to the law that is applicable at the time of their decision," she said.
Local Sweden
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
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 by April 1st, with a copy sent to ju.L7@ 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.
