With US President Donald Trump refusing to rule out using military means to take control of Greenland, voices in Europe are pushing for the EU to take more responsibility for its own future to avoid an over-reliance on a fraught transatlantic relationship.
Sweden’s EU minister Jessica Rosencrantz is fully on board, insisting that Europe needs to “step up” if it's to meet global defence challenges on its own terms.
“We come from a history of having under-invested in our common defence in Europe, and here we need a complete shift, and that's what we are seeing as well right now,” she told The Local.
Sweden and other EU member states were dramatically ramping up defence spending to meet new Nato targets, all while the bloc was undergoing a “transformative period”, she said.
READ ALSO: Sweden to invest 3.5 billion in air defence in rearmament push
With a greater focus on joint procurement and boosting domestic defence industries, Europe was now making common decisions on defence and security that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago, she said.
But amid simmering tensions on Greenland, how much can the EU rely on a partner that’s staking a territorial claim to Greenland, a semi-autonomous region of Nato ally Denmark?
“I would say that the situation now concerning Greenland is very problematic,” Rosencrantz told The Local a day after the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland emerged disappointed from the White House after a high-level meeting on the Arctic island’s future.
Speaking on the same day that Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson confirmed that Sweden was willing to contribute troops to a Danish exercise in Greenland purportedly aimed at deterring Russia and China, Rosencrantz said:
“We have been very clear from Sweden's side that we stand fully behind Denmark and Greenland in making sure that it is Denmark and Greenland who decide on their own future and that you have to respect other countries' territorial integrity.”
But, she added, “when it comes to Nato, the US has been quite clear that they are a partner in Nato and that all our collaboration in Nato still holds.”
READ ALSO: How Sweden's defence industry is ramping up production
For Rosencrantz, combatting sluggish economic growth is key if the EU is to succeed in building up its own defensive capabilities.
“We need to be really aggressive when it comes to simplification. We need to reduce the regulatory burden. We need to show the world that the way to prosperity and growth is through trade, not tariffs.”
As the world’s second largest economy, the EU already has a lot going for it, she stressed. If Europeans roll up their sleeves and curb a tendency to view the glass as half empty there's no reason why the continent can’t continue to prosper, according to Rosencrantz.
And when it comes to investing in new technologies, the rest of the bloc could learn a thing or two from Sweden.
“I think we should brag a little bit,” she said.
“We have a lot of all these elements that are actually working in Sweden. We rank high on the innovation index. We are leading when it comes to unicorns per capita. Stockholm is described as the capital of capital.”
READ ALSO: Sweden's sudden love affair with Europe – and why it matters
Rosencrantz did not believe that Sweden’s tougher immigration rules would have a dampening effect on the recruitment of international workers to innovative Swedish companies. Foreign tech workers have previously expressed anger and betrayal over Swedish government plans to apply new citizenship requirements retroactively.
“What we have done in our migration policy in general is really to make sure that citizenship is upgraded. It shouldn't be handed out easily," said Rosencrantz.
“We really need to look at different ways of attracting talent but I'm not sure that citizenship is the first step.”
READ ALSO: 'A trust breaker': Foreign tech workers campaign against new Swedish citizenship law
Jessica Rosencrantz was interviewed by James Savage.
Politics in Sweden is The Local's weekly analysis, guide or look ahead to what's coming up in Swedish politics. Update your newsletter settings to receive it directly to your inbox.
Comments