Zweedse ministers presenteren prioriteiten voorzitterschap aan het Europees Parlement (en)

On 1–3 September, the European Parliament’s buildings in Brussels will be crawling with Swedish ministers and officials. The ministers will be presenting the Swedish Presidency’s priorities to the Parliament’s committees. The committee presentations are public and can be followed on the Presidency website.

Johanna Brismar Skoog, Eric Salmgren and Amina Makboul work with issues concerning the European Parliament at the Permanent Representation of Sweden to the EU in Brussels. During the committee presentations they will be on site at the Parliament.

“We are the spiders in the web. We will ensure that everyone is well prepared and that everything runs as it should”, says Johanna Brismar Skoog.

Presentations provide opportunity for fruitful exchanges

The Swedish ministers are coming to their respective committees in the European Parliament to present the Presidency’s priorities within the relevant areas. Some ministers are visiting several committees and some committees are receiving visits from several ministers.

“For example, Minister for Agriculture Eskil Erlandsson will meet both the Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on Fisheries”, explains Johanna Brismar Skoog. “The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy will receive visits from Minister for Enterprise and Energy Maud Olofsson, Minister for Communications Åsa Torstensson and Minister for Higher Education and Research Tobias Krantz. To give just a couple of examples.”

The ministers will begin by giving a short presentation of around 20 minutes. There will then be an hour during which the parliamentarians will have the opportunity to comment on the programme.

The purpose of the meetings is to inform the European Parliament about what the Swedish Presidency is intending to do in each policy area. They also provide an opportunity for the Members of the European Parliament to present their views and ask questions.

“It is an occasion for dialogue between politicians, quite simply, where the Swedish Presidency can get a picture of the Parliament’s position on different issues”, says Eric Salmgren.

The ministers will be meeting a newly elected European Parliament and Eric Salmgren hopes this will mean that the parliamentarians are curious and interested in meeting the Presidency.

“We are at square one of a new electoral period and that of course makes it especially exciting”, he says.

Changing environment makes the work interesting

According to Johanna Brismar Skoog and Eric Salmgren, the interesting thing about working with the European Parliament is that it is such a diverse environment with such a wide range of issues. The parliamentarians are also in many cases more free to take political initiative.

“It is often said that the European Parliament is a chess board with three dimensions – one political, one national and one personal”, explains Johanna Brismar Skoog. “The parliamentarians belong to a political party, they come from the EU’s 27 Member States and they have a personal ambition to be re-elected.”

“That makes working with the Parliament multifaceted and more complicated”, she says. “But that is what makes it so much fun!”