Budget and objectives for the Ministry of Culture

The Ministry of Culture is responsible for expenditure area 1 - Governance (Media Policy) and 17 - Culture, the media, religious communities and leisure activities.

The 2008 Budget

The Ministry of Culture is responsible for two policy areas: cultural policy and media policy.

Expenditure area 1	Appropriation (SEK million)
Media policy	725

Expenditure area 17	Appropriation (SEK million)
Cultural policy	6123
Media policy	34
Sport policy	446

Objectives

Swedish cultural policy objectives

The objectives of national cultural policy include: safeguarding freedom of expression and creating genuine opportunities for everyone to make use of that freedom; taking action to enable everyone to participate in cultural life, to experience culture and to engage in creative activities of their own; promoting cultural diversity, artistic renewal and quality, thus counteracting the negative effects of commercialism; enabling culture to act as a dynamic, challenging and independent force in society; preserving and making use of our cultural heritage; promoting a thirst for learning, and promoting international cultural exchange and meetings between different cultures in the country.

The Riksdag has also adopted objectives for specific activities within the policy area, such as the objectives for state archives that have been included in Section 3 of the Archives Act (1990:782) (Govt. Bill 1989/90:72, Committee Report 1989/90:KrU29, Parliamentary Communication 1989/90:307), objectives for central government work concerning architecture, form and design (Govt. Bill 1997/98:117, Committee Report 1997/98:KrU14, Parliamentary Communication 1997/98:225), objectives for state funding to religious communities, included in Section 2 of the Act on Support to Religious Communities (1999:932) (Govt. Bill 1998/99:124, Committee Report 1999/2000:KU5, Parliamentary Communication 1999/2000:45), and objectives for work with the cultural environment (Govt. Bill 1998/99:114, Committee Report 1999/2000:KrU7, Parliamentary Communication 1999/2000:196).

Swedish media policy objectives

The objective of media policy is to support freedom of expression, diversity and the independence of and accessibility to mass media, as well as to combat harmful elements in mass media.

This has been approved by the Riksdag (Govt. Bill 2000/01:1, expenditure area 17, Committee Report 2000/01:KrU1, Parliamentary Communication 2000/01:59).

Swedish sport policy objectives

Sweden's sports policy is founded on three pillars. In planning, in the work of schools and in other contexts, everyone should be encouraged to take part in exercise and sport in order to promote good public health, and should be given the opportunity to do so. A free and independent sports movement, based on voluntary effort, that has a broad range of activities, that fosters good ethics, that provides equal conditions for girls and boys, women and men, that works actively for integration and that upholds training in democracy should receive active government support. Sports policy should also take into account the fact that sport involves a measure of commercial entertainment that gives many people pleasure and recreation.

These principles for sports policy have been approved by the Riksdag (Govt. Bill 1998/99:107, Culture Committee report 1999/2000:KrU3, Riksdag Communication. 1999/2000:52).

The Riksdag has authorised the Government to work at the 2007 general meeting of AB Svenska Spel for the payment of an aggregate contribution of some SEK 1200 million as state support for sports from AB Svenska Spel.