Sweden took over the presidency of the European Union from the Czech Republic

As of midnight, Sweden took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union from the Czech Republic. Sweden has been a member of the EU since 1995 and this is the country’s third presidency after 2001 and 2009.

The EU member states hold the presidency of the Council of the EU every six months and during that time they preside over meetings at all levels in the Council, which, along with the European Parliament, is the legislative body of the EU.

In the program of its presidency, under the slogan “Greener, safer and freer”, the Swedish government set four priorities: security and unity, competitiveness, green and energy transition and democratic values ​​and the rule of law, reports Hina.

After the parliamentary elections in Sweden in September, the centre-right Moderate Party formed a coalition with the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, but given that they do not have a majority in parliament, they agreed on a program with the right-wing and anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, which remained out of government. , but supports her in the parliament.

The leader of the Moderate Party, Ulf Christerson, became the Prime Minister. In a speech in the Swedish parliament in mid-December, Kristerson pointed out that the war in Ukraine will greatly affect his country’s EU presidency.

He stated that the challenges brought by the war to the EU are preserving unity in support of Ukraine, expanding economic, humanitarian and military aid, helping to rebuild the country, as well as seeking responsibility for the war.

One of the goals of the Swedish presidency is the completion of negotiations on the “Ready for 55 percent” climate package, which contains a series of proposals aimed at reducing the net emission of greenhouse gases in the EU by at least 55 percent by 2030.

The Czech presidency was very successful in this, concluding all the proposals from the package related to climate protection, and the most important task for the Swedish presidency remains the energy part, that is, the agreement on the directive on renewable energy sources and the directive on energy efficiency.