Swedish election monitors to Serbia and Georgia
The Government decided today to send two election monitors to Serbia ahead of the parliamentary elections on 11 May and three election monitors and 15 election observers to Georgia ahead of the parliamentary elections to be held on 21 May.
Preliminary development assistance statistics for 2007
The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) today published preliminary statistics for official development assistance (ODA) from all member countries. The statistics show that only Sweden and four other countries comfortably exceed the UN goal of an ODA volume amounting to 0.7 per cent of gross national income (GNI).
Sweden to host international UN conference on Iraq
Today Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and made it clear that Sweden will host the first follow-up meeting for the International Compact with Iraq (ICI).
Stronger Swedish presence in Mumbai, India
Today, Tuesday 1 April, Minister for Trade Ewa Björling opened the Swedish Trade Council's new office in Mumbai. Mumbai, with more than fifteen million inhabitants, is regarded to be India's finance and entertainment centre.
The Government Sells Vin & Sprit for SEK 55 billion
The Government of Sweden has agreed to sell V&S Vin & Sprit AB (V&S) to Pernod Ricard S.A. (Pernod Ricard), one of the world's leading wine and spirits companies. The total value of the transaction for V&S, owner of the Absolut vodka brand, is equivalent to SEK 55 billion in accordance with the agreement signed on Sunday March 30.
A joint press conference regarding the sale of V&S will be held 31 March at 9.30 am CET. The press conference will be webcasted.
Functional separation for better broadband competition
The Government has now approved the Bill "Functional separation for better broadband competition", which is intended to improve competition in the broadband market.
In the Bill, the Government proposes that the National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) be given more scope to intervene so as to increase competition in the broadband market by ordering functional separation. Such a decision can be taken by the PTS if it turns out that the dominant operator still has an unfair advantage vis-ā-vis other operators in the market, and other operators do not have sufficient insight into the dominant operator's network operations, despite other measures from the PTS.
Sweden renews its Africa policy
Sweden's renewed Africa policy was presented on Wednesday in the "Communication on Africa" submitted by the Government to the Riksdag. The Communication sets out the framework for Swedish policy for cooperation with Africa in the three policy areas of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs: foreign policy, trade and development assistance.
State Visit from Romania
Romanian President Traian Basescu will be making a State Visit to Sweden 11-12 March 2008 at the invitation of His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf. The programme will include meetings with the Speaker of Parliament Mr Per Westerberg, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and with representatives of the Swedish business sector.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt hands over Sweden's letter of recognition to the Republic of Kosovo
Carl Bildt was the first foreign minister to visit Pristina following Kosovo's declaration of independence. During his visit, Mr Bildt met Kosovo's president Fatmir Sejdiu and handed over Sweden's letter of recognition of the new republic. President Sejdiu accepted the letter of recognition at the Kosovan parliament.
Swedish legislation to be reviewed in search of more effective internal market
Minister for Trade Ewa Björling today appointed Jörgen Hettne as Inquiry Chair to conduct a horizontal review of how Swedish legislation affects the EU internal market for products and services.
