We have a new EU-parliament – let’s get to work!
Europe - the elections for the new European Parliament are over and we have a result! Headlines like ‘right-wingers won’ and ‘liberals and greens lose at EU level’ are being circulated. But it's more complicated than that because there are big differences between the EU countries. And once again, Sweden seems to be out of tune with many other EU-countries - here the Green and the Left parties made a strong election. In Sweden the situation of the Baltic Sea environment also got surprisingly much attention in the election campaign, with nearly all Swedish parties expressing concern and presenting proposals for the Baltic Sea.
In the Swedish election all the current Swedish parliamentary parties passed the threshold of 4% support, but the distribution of seats changed. At the time of writing (Wednesday), not all votes have been counted, so small changes may occur and only later will it be known which individual candidates that made it. In short, at the moment the situation is as follows; the left, the social democrats, the greens and the conservatives (V, S, MP, M and L) increased while the right wing and the middle parties decreased (SD, C and KD). The three largest parties are the social democrats (S), the conservatives (M) and the greens (MP).
Swedish result could bring good news for the Baltic Sea
If you put this result in relation to our previous analysis (in Swedish) of the Swedish election manifestos, this is good news for the Baltic Sea. All the three largest parties included marine issues in their election manifestos - to different extents – which provides a basis for further joint work on marine issues in the EP. During the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy in the period 2009-2014, concerned MEPs in different political groups cooperated to raise awareness and garner support for improvements within their respective groups. Swedish MEPs were prominent in that cooperation.
The distribution of seats in the European Parliament is not entirely clear either, but the broad patterns are there. The winners are the conservatives (EPP) and the right-wing forces (ECR and ID), while the socialists (S&D), the liberals (Renew), the Greens (Greens/EFA) and the left (GUE/NGL) lost seats. However, the largest groups remain the conservative and liberal centre, consisting of the EPP and Renew parties, as well as the Socialists and Democrats (S&D). Already, the leader of the EPP, Manfred Weber, has reached out to both groups to form a common alliance.
Reforms of chemicals, agriculture and fisheries policy awaits
The final distribution of seats and which candidates take their place in which committees, will play a major role in whether the EP will pursue progressive maritime policy. Even before the elections, developments were going in the wrong direction. In the name of the dreadful war in Ukraine, several political processes to improve the environment were watered down or stopped.
During the next parliamentary term, 2024-2029, several policy areas that are important for the sea will be reformed, such as agriculture, fisheries and chemicals policy. Only time will tell how this will work out. But we as scientists and knowledge brokers are happy to help and support the new parliament and the incoming Commission about the problems and solutions for the Baltic Sea environment. Considering the attention given to the Baltic Sea environment
in Sweden in this campaign, there may be a potential for more cross-party cooperation for the benefit of the Baltic in the coming term.
Text: Charles Berkow, Ellen Bruno and Gun Rudquist, policy analysts, Stockholms University Baltic Sea Centre.
Last updated: June 13, 2024
Source: Baltic Sea Centre