February 14, 2012
The following articles have been tagged with "Eu_commission":
Business & Money: 14 Feb 12
Sweden is among twelve countries set to be discussed in a report from the EU commission, due to what the European Commission has identified as imbalances in the economy.
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Politics: 22 Jan 12
As the Social Democrats begin the search for a new leader after Håkan Juholt's resignation, an opinion poll conducted prior to the dramatic events on Saturday show the party at its lowest ebb since the 1960s.
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Business & Money: 22 Sep 11
Sweden has been told by the European Union to repay 870 million kronor (€94 million, $127 million) in agricultural subsidies, a third of which will be paid by farmers, an industry body said Thursday.
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Politics: 23 Aug 11
A recent government decision to temporarily halt Sweden's licensed wolf hunt is nothing more than an attempt to fool the European Commission, environmental organisations claimed on Tuesday.
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Science & Technology: 18 Aug 11
There won’t be a licensed hunt on wolves in Sweden this winter following a government decision on Wednesday to scrap the controversial policy, while at the same time expanding the option to cull nuisance wolves.
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Business & Money: 1 Aug 11
Sweden's government has pledged to continue to fight for the lifting of an EU-wide ban against moist snuff or 'snus', in the face of what it calls European "ignorance" of the smokeless tobacco product.
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National: 15 Jul 11
European officials visiting Denmark's controversial controls on the border to Sweden on Thursday found to their surprise that there was no sign of the customs officers deployed earlier this month.
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National: 6 Jul 11
Denmark on Tuesday deployed 50 new customs officers at its borders with Germany and Sweden as part of a widely-criticised government plan to reintroduce permanent controls at border crossings.
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Politics: 30 Jun 11
EU's budget proposal has been heavily criticised by Sweden, with one MP calling it "the most provocative budget in EU history".
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Politics: 28 Jun 11
The Sweden Democrats demanded increased border controls when the Riksdag debated free movement within the European Union on Tuesday.
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Politics: 6 Jun 11
Sweden's EU commissioner Cecilia Malmström has called for action after it emerged that four out of every five EU citizens consider corruption to be a problem in their country, with costs topping 1,000 billion kronor ($162 billion) per year.
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Science & Technology: 24 May 11
Police officers in northern Sweden took action on Tuesday against a group of Greenpeace activists occupying a barn while protesting against the planned introduction of genetically modified (GM) potatoes in the area.
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National: 13 May 11
Sweden's finance minister, Anders Borg, sees no immediate problems with Denmark's decision to increase border controls between the two countries.
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Politics: 4 May 11
Swedish EU commissioner Cecilia Malmström has opened up to calls for simplifying the establishment of border controls between EU countries following the recent French-Italian conflict over Tunisian refugees.
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Society: 8 Apr 11
Sweden’s most malodorous delicacy will continue to stink up households across Sweden if the government gets its way in the EU.
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Business & Money: 31 Mar 11
The Swedish government has announced that it is to "fight all the way" against an EU Commission ruling to reject an application to restrict the levy of VAT payable by non-profit groups.
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Business & Money: 29 Mar 11
Applications for liquor licences have skyrocketed in Stockholm following a change in licensing laws that took effect at the start of the year.
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National: 20 Mar 11
The EU-commission has urged member states to measure radioactivity levels in imported Japanese foods, but according to the National Food Administration there is little risk to Swedish consumers.
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Politics: 16 Mar 11
The Riksdag has decided to postpone the vote on the controversial EU data retention directive, following a stay of proceedings called for by members of the opposition.
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Politics: 20 Feb 11
Sweden's social affairs minister Göran Hägglund has demanded that the EU removes its ban against moist snuff or 'snus', arguing that the product is "significantly less damaging than cigarettes".
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National: 16 Feb 11
Despite the odds in their favour, an estimated 6,000 Swedish hunters weren't enough to shoot the 20 wolves authorised to be killed in Sweden's controversial wolf hunt, which ended on Tuesday.
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Science & Technology: 8 Feb 11
Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren defended the licensed wolf hunt in Sweden's parliament, the Riksdag, on Tuesday, claiming that it would help bring in new wolves and save the wolf population from inbreeding.
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Politics: 17 Jan 11
Sweden's wolf hunt violates EU law, environment commissioner Janez Potocnik said on Monday, vowing to drag Sweden to court for allowing the hunt to continue this year.
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Politics: 23 Dec 10
The European Commission has continued to challenge Sweden's wolf hunt policy, with the EU environment commissioner warning the government about letting the hunt begin before it receives answers to its questions.
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Business & Money: 17 Dec 10
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt announced on Friday that Sweden has not yet ruled out the possibility of supporting a new emergency fund to bail out vulnerable euro countries.
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National: 4 Dec 10
The 2010 Nobel laureate in medicine will not attend the December 10th Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm, the Nobel Foundation announced in a statement on Friday. China's ambassador to Sweden has also declined his invitation.
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Politics: 10 Aug 10
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Sweden's Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson as a member of the new UN High-level Panel on Global Sustainability.
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National: 9 Aug 10
Tourists and business travellers from Europe will have to fork out 100 kronor ($14) in order to travel to the USA after September 8th in a move which has angered the EU commission.
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Politics: 10 Jul 10
A decision in Sweden's parliament, the Riksdag, to allow old nuclear reactors to be replaced has broad support among Swedes, according to a survey presented by the Liberal Party.
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National: 30 Jun 10
The Swedish Health and Welfare Board has called for an end to the requirement that all those seeking to change gender must be single and sterilised in a new report which argues that existing legislation is out of date.
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National: 30 Jun 10
The Swedish Customs (Tullverket) has exposed a garlic smuggling operation which operates across the EU, after a shipment of the offending onion was recently seized in western Sweden.
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Politics: 23 Jun 10
Sweden's agriculture minister Eskil Erlandsson pleaded with the EU's health and consumer policy commissioner on Tuesday to save one of the country's most loved - and loathed - delicacies: stinky fermented herring.
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Business & Money: 16 Jun 10
A decrease in restaurant taxes could create 15,000 new jobs, particularly for young people and immigrants, according to a new report.
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Analysis & Opinion: 8 Jun 10
Sweden's Minister of EU Affairs Birgitta Ohlsson talks to The Local's Peter Vinthagen Simpson about freedom of expression in Sweden and Europe today; the euro and Sweden's status outside of it; and what can be done to encourage and promote universal European liberal values.
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Business & Money: 20 May 10
Sweden has ruled out following a German decision to ban so-called naked short-selling, a decision which has sent stock markets tumbling across Europe this week.
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Society: 30 Mar 10
The Swedish tax agency has been instructed by the EU commission to revise its procedures for approving surnames after a Spanish-Swedish couple were refused the right to give their son both their names.
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Business & Money: 18 Mar 10
Swedish students have named Google, Ikea and the foreign ministry as their dream places of work, according to a new survey.
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Society: 26 Feb 10
A hemp farmer in Halland in western Sweden has won a court ruling stating that his crop was illegally seized by the Swedish state. The man has been awarded 10,000 kronor compensation after his ten year legal battle.
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Analysis & Opinion: 25 Feb 10
The European Commission's proposed new directive on maternity leave is well-meaning but fatally flawed, argues Minister for EU Affairs Birgitta Ohlsson.
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Analysis & Opinion: 2 Feb 10
Birgitta Ohlsson was named as Sweden's new EU minister on Tuesday. An outspoken advocate of feminism, equality and civil liberties issues, as well as a keen supporter of Nato membership, Ohlsson also harbours dreams of a top UN human rights post.
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Politics: 2 Feb 10
Birgitta Ohlsson has been named as Liberal Party colleague Cecilia Malmström's successor as Sweden's EU minister despite the initial reservations of party leader Jan Björklund.
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Politics: 9 Jan 10
Social Democrat Margot Wallström is a more popular choice than Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt to lead the country, according to a new poll. The result follows speculation surrounding a secret plan to oust opposition leader Mona Sahlin.
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Business & Money: 11 Dec 09
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has announced that the European Union's member states have agreed to give $10.6 billion to help developing nations tackle climate change.
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Business & Money: 4 Dec 09
Prospective Saab buyer BAIC has received approval for a loan of 20 billion Yuan, approximately 20 billion Swedish kronor ($2.9 billion), from the Bank of China.
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Politics: 27 Nov 09
Sweden's enterprise minister Maud Olofsson laid responsibility for the sale of Saab firmly at the feet of owner GM on Friday, hitting back at criticism from Saab CEO Jan Åke Jonsson.
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Politics: 27 Nov 09
Incoming Swedish EU commissioner Cecilia Malmström has been offered the substantial portfolio covering the police, migration and organized crime, EU Commission President Manuel Barroso announced on Friday.
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National: 27 Nov 09
The European Parliament has increased pressure on Eritrea to free Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak. The speaker has demanded Isaak's release along with the other journalists arrested in 2001.
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Politics: 25 Nov 09
A verbal spat has broken out between the political opposition and Sweden’s industry minister Maud Olofsson after Left Party leader Lars Ohly blamed the government for the failed sale of Saab.
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Politics: 20 Nov 09
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has announced that Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy will be the first permanent President of the European Council following negotiations in Brussels on Thursday evening.
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Politics: 19 Nov 09
Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt has given voice to apprehensions that the EU may settle on an uninspiring compromise candidate for the new post of president when the union's leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday.
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Politics: 17 Nov 09
Cecilia Malmström, currently Sweden's EU affairs minister, has been nominated as the successor to the country's outgoing EU commissioner, Margot Wallström.
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Politics: 16 Nov 09
Sweden, the current head of the EU's rotating presidency, is ratcheting up its hunt for consensus candidates for two new EU top jobs. Stockholm intends to have the positions filled at a summit later this week.
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Politics: 14 Nov 09
Outgoing Swedish EU commissioner Margot Wallström has been nominated by the government to fill a top job at the United Nations headquarters in New York when her term of office ends early next year.
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Politics: 11 Nov 09
Sweden, which currently hold the rotating EU presidency, has called an extraordinary meeting in Brussels next week with the aim of presenting candidates for the new positions of president and foreign policy chief.
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Politics: 27 Oct 09
Amid discussions by EU foreign ministers about the need for strong leadership, Swedish EU commissioner Margot Wallström has called for the appointment of a woman to serve as EU president.
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Politics: 3 Oct 09
The Irish Yes vote for the European Union's Lisbon treaty is "a good day for Europe," Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, speaking for the EU's Swedish presidency, said on Saturday.
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Education: 24 Sep 09
The Swedish government has plans to toughen up on the credentials required for the country's school teachers.
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Business & Money: 22 Sep 09
Competition authorities are looking into whether the division of the Sweden's new 4G network by the country's five big mobile operators may have been an attempt to exclude other players from entering the market.
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Business & Money: 19 Aug 09
The Swedish government has refused a request from Koenigsegg Group to lend a further 3 billion kronor ($412 million) to enable the firm to complete the purchase of Saab Automobile AB from ailing US giant General Motors.
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National: 15 Aug 09
The Russian embassy in Cape Verde denied rumours that the Arctic Sea, a cargo ship that disappeared off the coast of Sweden at the end of July, had been sighted near the islands off the west coast of Africa.
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Society: 10 Aug 09
Even moderate alcohol consumption while pregnant can have detrimental effects on the health of the child, a new report from the Swedish National Institute of Public Health has advised.
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Politics: 21 Jun 09
Sweden accepted the EU presidency on Saturday with the symbolic handover of a barrel of Czech beer.
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Analysis & Opinion: 1 Jun 09
Sweden's Pirate Party could become one of the surprise new entrants to the European parliament this week.
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Politics: 31 May 09
The Swedish Pirate Party, which supports a filesharing free-for-all, remains on course to claim seats in the EU parliament as the country takes to the polls this week with civil liberties high on the political agenda.
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Analysis & Opinion: 9 May 09
"If you tried to market the EU as an aphrodisiac, it would rate up there with a nice pair of socks," writes Sweden's EU Commissioner Margot Wallström. But, she adds, May 9th is Europe Day and there's much to celebrate.
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Politics: 4 May 09
The Alliance government is doing a better job in the EU than the previous Social Democratic government headed by Göran Persson, the Swedish EU commissioner and Social Democrat Margot Wallström has said.
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Science & Technology: 2 Apr 09
Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and Nobel prize-winner Wangari Maathai, met Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in Stockholm on Wednesday to discuss the impact of the financial crisis on work to arrest climate change.
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Politics: 19 Jan 09
Less than a third of the Swedish electorate is aware that there is an election to the EU parliament in 2009, according to a new poll.
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Politics: 28 Nov 08
Swedish trade minister Ewa Björling has called on Brussels to lift the EU ban on exports of Swedish moist snuff, or ‘snus’, calling the prohibition discriminatory.
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National: 14 Nov 08
Finance minister Anders Borg has surpassed prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt as Sweden’s most influential powerbroker, according to a new ranking.
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National: 13 Nov 08
The European Commission has ordered that the Stockholm-based al Barakaat banking network remain on the United Nation’s list of terrorist organizations, Sveriges Radio reports.
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Politics: 7 Sep 08
A Swedish Moderate party group has proposed the introduction of radical new regulations to limit the fuel consumption of new vehicles.
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Politics: 21 Jul 08
The Swedish union of journalists has accused the EU Commission of colluding with media firm Bonniers against the system of press subsidies, and Margot Wallström for tightening secrecy around the Commission's routines.
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Society: 2 Jun 08
The water at 23 Swedish bathing areas did not meet EU requirements last year, according to a new report
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Business & Money: 6 May 08
Publishing giant Bonnier AB was responsible for delivering a secret complaint to the EU Commission about state support to the press in Sweden.
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Politics: 22 Apr 08
Sweden, France and the Czech Republic pledged on Tuesday to make real progress on combatting global warming during their successive EU presidencies.
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Politics: 4 Apr 08
Two major Swedish newspapers are to lose almost all of the subsidies they currently receive from the state.
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National: 23 Mar 08
New EU regulations will make it harder for foreign drivers to avoid the payment of traffic fines incurred in Sweden.
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Business & Money: 18 Mar 08
The government wants to give telecom regulator PTS greater powers, which may have immediate consequences for Finnish-Swedish telecom operator Telia Sonera.
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Politics: 18 Feb 08
Despite a common position by the Alliance parties, the climate policy commission failed to reach agreement on an emissions reduction goal.
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Science & Technology: 23 Jan 08
The EU Commission set new goals for Sweden. Photo: Switzerland's environment minister cracks down on CO2.
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Business & Money: 21 Dec 07
Airline company SAS Group has confirmed it is being investigated for anti-competitive practices by the EU Commission.
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Society: 13 Jul 07
When controversial plans to remove the rental ceiling in favour of market rates in Sweden's housing sector were revealed two weeks ago, the government said it was simply responding to EU demands. Nonsense, says the EU.
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Politics: 20 Jun 07
The Swedish government has announced that it is preparing to reform the Swedish gambling market. Aggressive marketing is to be prohibited but Svenska Spel is expected to retain a dominant position.
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Business & Money: 13 Jun 07
Proposed changes to the Swedish press subsidy system may result in a serious loss of income for major newspapers such as Svenska Dagbladet and Skånska Dagbladet.
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Analysis & Opinion: 21 May 07
Working internationally to combat climate change is all very well, but Brussels should sort out its existing environmental schemes before embarking on ambitious new EU projects, argues Mats Persson of the Open Europe think tank.
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Society: 9 May 07
Swedes aged 15-20 are ignorant about the fate of neighbouring countries before the fall of communism. A fifth thought communism had claimed less than a million lives.
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Politics: 30 Mar 07
Al Gore was in Sweden on Friday to talk about the effects of global warming with Sweden's EU Commissioner Margot Wallström.
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Politics: 23 Mar 07
Sweden and Cuba remain at loggerheads after a war of war of words led to what Carl Bildt has described as a "diplomatic crisis".
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Politics: 18 Mar 07
Mona Sahlin's first speech as the leader of the Social Democrats was received warmly by the party faithful at their conference in Stockholm on Sunday morning.
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Politics: 17 Mar 07
Mona Sahlin has had a long political career in which she has swung between party darling and outcast. But much remains unknown about how she plans to lead the Social Democrats.
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Science & Technology: 15 Mar 07
Swedes do love a drink or five. But are they the biggest bingers in the European Union?
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Business & Money: 6 Mar 07
A new ruling in the European Court of Justice has put further pressure on national gambling monopolies in EU member states.
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Analysis & Opinion: 4 Jan 07
Sweden's Social Democrats are looking for a new leader and Mona Sahlin seems to be the front runner. The Local asked political expert Stig-Björn Ljunggren to help us size up the contenders.
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National: 29 Dec 06
Who do Swedes most admire? Royals, sports personalities and comedians are all in evidence on the nation's top ten lists - but Swedes reserve greatest admiration for their political leaders.
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Politics: 6 Dec 06
Sweden's Social Democrats believe that the way back into power is to the left. That is the view of the chairmen of the party's local associations, who also think it was a mistake to work with the Green Party.
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Politics: 1 Dec 06
Mona Sahlin and Carin Jämtin are the only two candidates remaining for the leadership of the Social Democratic Party, reports say. Jämtin is favoured by the party's left wing, while the right favours Sahlin.
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Business & Money: 30 Nov 06
German truckmaker MAN said on Thursday that it could extend its takeover bid for Swedish rival Scania.
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National: 30 Nov 06
The Swedish ban on private individuals importing alcohol for resale does not contravene EU regulations, the advocate general of the European Court of Justice has said.
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Politics: 24 Nov 06
EU Commissioner Margot Wallström has gained the support of a number of influential groups in the race to succeed Göran Persson as Social Democrat leader. But she insists she's not interested in the job.
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As diverse as Sweden is, there are a few societal norms that are distinctly Swedish. Understanding a handful of them will hopefully prepare you culturally before you relocate. When you're invited home to a Swede, you better be on time and take your shoes off, writes expat Lola Akinmade-Åkerström. Read more »
Sweden is a country where almost everyone can speak English. So why bother to learn Swedish? Edina Varnagy from Hungary managed with English for a whole year but then found that Swedish could open doors – to a job, a social life and greater understanding. Read more »
"The ice dripped in the winter sun. It was the first day when the light had been intense enough to cause dripping in the sunlight. To hear it was an extraordinary wakeup call. The cycle was happening again as it always does, always will (or so we think). I imagined that on my summer island, the bees..." READ »
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fin
adjective
Fin means anyhting from sweet to proper. When someone says, Du är så fin it's quite a compliment.
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