Guest column: The EU election is a municipal election

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Peace, freedom, democracy and human rights cannot be taken for granted. We must conquer them together every day and at every election. Let’s make sure that the EU elections get to be about the big, important issues – and not get bogged down in gimmicks or A-tractors.

SKR has recently adopted a series of positions for an EU that lives up to the challenges we face. We call the position “Self-government, welfare, close to citizens”. I think it is important to point out, once again, that approximately half of the work of the municipalities and regions is directly or indirectly affected by decisions made at the EU level. As our Finnish sister organization expresses it: the EU election is a municipal election.

EU cooperation creates important conditions for welfare, democracy and peace, but policy development could be even better if the EU took the local and regional context into account to a greater extent – not least for Swedish municipalities and regions with their far-reaching autonomy. In short, the more entrenched the policy is close to the citizens, the more stable the cooperation will be.

SKR has the task of being a unifying voice for Swedish municipalities and regions vis-à-vis the national level and vis-à-vis the EU institutions. We will actively continue to make our voice heard and participate with these collective positions and experiences in nine key areas where we believe the EU needs to know about and consider the local and regional level. I hope you will soon want to read them and then discuss with us.

We highlight here what we mean by welfare development in a digital world, and in what way an ambitious environmental, climate and energy policy needs to take into account the conditions of Swedish municipalities and regions. Here we also talk about why we want to see a healthcare policy that respects national competences and pharmaceutical legislation with a holistic view.

We write about why we believe a viable European labor market with a strong role for social dialogue is needed, and what we see can happen without a strong cohesion policy and a strong research and innovation policy. We also show how a well-developed transport infrastructure gives municipalities and regions increased accessibility and good conditions for working towards lower emissions.

We need a strong internal market from a local and regional perspective. A clear EU in Sweden – when EU decisions are implemented in Swedish legislation.

Yes, as you can hear, these are the big, broad issues – which rest on democracy, participation, tolerance, equality and respect for local self-government.

For me, the election on 9 June is about taking a stand for the development of a modern Europe that gives us the conditions for a strong welfare society, and for continued strong cooperation that unites the sovereign member states. The foundation for it is built locally, close to the residents.

Anders Henriksson
chairman SKR

The chronicle was published on Europaportalen on 30 April