Moderates to stamp out ID number delays
The ruling Moderate Party wants to help EU citizens who are planning to work in Sweden for less than a year, giving them swifter and easier access to the holy grail of Swedish bureaucracy - "the personnummer".
"If you're here as an expert for less than a year, it's difficult to get a personal number (personnummer), and that makes it difficult to get, for example, a bank account," Moderate MP Anna Kinberg Batra told the TT news agency.
"It's sometimes a Catch 22 scenario," she added. "We've seen Germans come here, but they can't get a personnummer if they haven't got a job, but they need a personnummer to get a job."
Kingberg Batra, who is attending the party meeting in Gothenburg, said she was not sure whether such a reform would require a law change of personal registration rules (folkbokföring). She said, however, that she would be prepared to push through such legislation if necessary to make it easier for EU citizens to get a personnummer in Sweden without kerfuffles or delay.
Last month, a report from the National Board of Trade warned that EU citizens who move to Sweden face several structural challenges without the personnummer.
"To not be able to access an individual service can be an object of irritation," researcher Sofia Råsmar said in the summary. "But when the same problem crops up with several authorities in very different situations, it can be perceived as a true obstacle to a life in Sweden."
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"If you're here as an expert for less than a year, it's difficult to get a personal number (personnummer), and that makes it difficult to get, for example, a bank account," Moderate MP Anna Kinberg Batra told the TT news agency.
"It's sometimes a Catch 22 scenario," she added. "We've seen Germans come here, but they can't get a personnummer if they haven't got a job, but they need a personnummer to get a job."
Kingberg Batra, who is attending the party meeting in Gothenburg, said she was not sure whether such a reform would require a law change of personal registration rules (folkbokföring). She said, however, that she would be prepared to push through such legislation if necessary to make it easier for EU citizens to get a personnummer in Sweden without kerfuffles or delay.
Last month, a report from the National Board of Trade warned that EU citizens who move to Sweden face several structural challenges without the personnummer.
"To not be able to access an individual service can be an object of irritation," researcher Sofia Råsmar said in the summary. "But when the same problem crops up with several authorities in very different situations, it can be perceived as a true obstacle to a life in Sweden."
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