Sweden's path to EU membership

For Sweden, membership of the EU in 1995 was the culmination of an extended period of integration and cooperation with EU Member States. The 1972 free trade agreement between Sweden and the EC and the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA) in 1992 were key milestones on Sweden’s path to EU membership.

Once the application process had begun, it did not take long for Sweden to become a member of the EU. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in the autumn of 1989, the issue of EU membership gained momentum. During the great power rivalry that divided Europe in the Cold War, Sweden had considered EU membership incompatible with its policy of neutrality.

In October 1990, the Swedish Government announced its position that Sweden should seek membership of the bloc. In July 1991, the then Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson submitted Sweden’s application and in February 1993, in-depth negotiations commenced in Brussels. The Heads of State and Government of the EU Member States had signalled their approval for an enlargement of the European Union without significant institutional reforms at the summit meetings of Lisbon and Edinburgh in 1992. This cleared the way for Sweden to become one of the Union’s new members.

The negotiations took just over a year to complete. An agreement between Sweden and EU Member States was reached on 30 March 1994, and signed at the EU summit meeting on Corfu in the summer of 1994.

More than half of Swedes voted in favour of EU membership

A referendum held on 13 November 1994 settled the question of Sweden’s EU membership. The referendum was advisory but Sweden’s political parties had agreed to respect the result in advance, where 52.3 per cent voted yes, 46.8 per cent voted no and 0.9 per cent submitted blank votes. Election turn-out was high, at 83 per cent. The Swedish people had thus agreed to membership and the decision was formally taken by the Riksdag on 15 December 1994.

Referenda

One reason that membership negotiations proceeded relatively smoothly was that a large proportion of the work had already been done for the EEA Agreement in 1992. This Agreement between EU Member States and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) already regulated most of the conditions for Sweden’s participation in the internal market of the EU. However, several important areas, such as agriculture and regional policy, fell outside the scope of the EEA Agreement and were addressed in Sweden’s EU membership agreement.

The Swedish language in the EU

Swedish is one of the EU’s 24 official languages. The status of the Swedish language as one of the bloc’s official languages is a fundamental principle for Sweden. A Member State’s ability to communicate between EU institutions in its own language is a vital tool in continued efforts to improve openness and deepen democratic support for EU cooperation.

A Swedish language policy was adopted in 1996. A key aspect of this policy is that Sweden’s elected representatives in the European Parliament and Swedish representatives in other high-level bodies must be able to communicate in Swedish. Language ability must not determine the choice of representatives.