Sweden's government ready with electricity compensation for business
Sweden's government has finalised its compensation package for businesses affected by high power prices, a full seven months after it promised the system would be in place.
At a meeting on Monday afternoon, the government formally decided on the government order under for the compensation, meaning businesses can start to apply to the Swedish Tax Agency to receive the money from May 30th.
The decision came after the European Commission on Friday gave its approval to the system, a month after the government first sent in its application for the scheme to accepted under state aid rules.
"I'm happy to be able to announce that the government has as quickly as possible decided on the government order," Sweden's business minister Ebba Busch said in a statement.
It is seven months since the date that the government and the Sweden Democrats had promised that the electricity price compensation would be available to businesses.
The commission said that the system had to be changed so that companies and organisations who already had a fixed price electricity contract in place before February 24th 2022 which remained in force until after February 24th 2023 would not be eligible for a payment.
Swedish vocabulary: en förordning – a government order/directive
Swedish election observer barred from Turkey election
The parliamentary assembly of the world's largest security organisation, the OSCE, voiced disappointment on Monday after Turkey barred a Swedish and a Danish lawmaker from a 100-strong mission to monitor the country's May 14 elections.
Turkish authorities have denied accreditation to Swedish MP Kadir Kasirga and Danish MP Soren Sondergaard, said the parliamentary assembly of the 57-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
"We are disappointed with this step taken by the Turkish authorities, which could impact negatively on the work of the international observer mission," the assembly said.
It said Turkey "should not -- directly or indirectly -- influence the composition of the mission", adding that Sondergaard and Kasirga had been refused entry because of statements made "as independent members of parliament".
The 100-strong team is made up of lawmakers from OSCE member countries. Another OSCE body is sending a separate team of almost 400 people to observe Turkey's presidential and parliamentary vote, in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces the toughest challenge of his two-decade rule.
Liberal and Ukrainian youth leaders call for Sweden to send Gripen jets to Ukraine
The chair of the Liberal Party's youth organisation LUF, Erik Berg, has written a debate article together with a Ukrainian colleague calling for Sweden to send some of its Jas 39 Gripen planes to Ukraine.
The article was written with Oleksandr Santjenko, chair of the youth group of the party led by Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
"There's no room for compromise, doing so would make the whole of Europe vulnerable to future Russian attacks," they wrote. "Sweden should prepare to support Ukraine's resistance with Jas 39 Gripen planes.
UK Royal Marines defend Stockholm archipelago in Aurora 23
"Just here, in the archipelago around our coasts is the place where they are solving tasks such as coastal defence operations, if someone were to threaten us," Ewa Skoog Haslum, head of the Swedish Marines, said in a press conference on the island of Korsö.
Skoog Haslum said that Sweden's amphibious divisions were uniquely skilled at operating in archipelago environments, adding that the Royal Marines were also highly capable.
Swedish vocabulary: duktig – skilled/capable
Sweden apologises for treatment of Raoul Wallenberg family
Sweden's ambassador to Israel has apologised in an article in the Haaretz newspaper for not taking sufficient action to find out what happened to the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who rescued thousands of Hungarian jews during the Second World War, but who disappeared in 1945 after being arrested by Soviet forces.
"Sweden did not do enough," Erik Ullenhag wrote in the Haaretz newspaper, in response to an article by Susanne Berger and Vadim Birstein, two researchers who accused Sweden of erasing Wallenberg's memory.
"I cannot in all honesty be proud of Sweden's history when it comes to Wallenberg," he wrote. "Sweden did not to enough to find out what happened to him, which sealed his fate."
Swedish vocabulary: att besegla sitt öde – to seal his fate
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