Speeches

Mr President, thank you very much. Commissioner Jørgensen! I want to highlight two things here today. Firstly, what are we going to do with the bottleneck charges? The EU has locked up money that Swedish households sit and pay in every month. The money is piling up, a pile that currently amounts to SEK 65 billion and is only expected to grow. People at home in Sweden are rightly pissed off. They see how electricity prices differ enormously within the country and of course question why we import higher prices. You have to understand that here too. We should free up bottleneck fees so that countries like Sweden have more control over how they can be used. Secondly, the most important thing for bringing prices down is, of course, that we must become independent of dictatorships and crazy men's gas and oil. The fact that some, so-called patriots, spend their time here in Parliament curving their backs at them is nothing short of a scandal.

Madam President, thank you very much. Thank you, Commissioner. I note that some so-called patriots in here like to act as lapdogs for foreign power. But I feel rather disgusted by Europe's dependence on crazy men in Russia, China, the United States and elsewhere. Therefore, we must stop being dependent on their gas and oil. This change is not made to be kind to someone else, but for our own sake: for jobs, industrial societies and the very real people. If we are to be a producing continent in the future, with good conditions for workers, we cannot cling to technology that is becoming obsolete. Despite this, we hear the extreme right promising to pause time or preferably rewind it. It is absurd and a betrayal of those who work in the mills, in the industries, those whose jobs will disappear if the EU countries try to freeze time. The far right betrays them when they lie and says that everything can be as it always has been. But it's never been the way it always has been. Don't they understand that?

Madam President, thank you very much. The EU is basically created to preserve peace, and part of this has been the EU's so-called cohesion policy. In Sweden, we often say regional development that helps local and regional projects create new jobs, strengthen companies and associations and get people to cooperate based on what is really needed in the community locally, instead of just following the decisions from above. Now the Commission seems to want to take power over the money from the local and regional level and give it to the state – a huge centralisation and transfer of both power and money. As power moves further away from the people affected, we risk losing what makes us strong. Our local knowledge, our ability to solve problems where they actually exist. The future of cohesion policy in the EU should be about including local communities more, not less.

Sweden's national security adviser, the Prime Minister's childhood friend Henrik Landerholm, has forgotten security-classified documents found by unauthorized persons. He has forgotten his phone at Hungary's embassy in the midst of burning NATO negotiations and now also traveled privately for tax money. I still haven't heard what the Democrats think. What does Beatrice Timgren think about this? Is it really trusting?

Everyone who has been a politician in Sweden knows that if there is anything we hear as soon as we are going to talk about energy policy, it is this lie, over and over again, that it would have been us who shut down nuclear power in Sweden. (Parts of speech without microphone) What is true, however, is that it was social democrats who, in a technologically optimistic spirit, built nuclear power in Sweden. It is also Social Democrats who ensure that we also expand the renewable energy in Sweden, which the Sweden Democrats want to dismantle, while instead thinking that we should import high gas prices by expanding the gas in Sweden. You can think about whether it is the price you are protecting, or whether it is the fossil energy.

Madam President, thank you very much. We are facing a crucial time where investing in the energy of the future is not just a technical issue but a moral duty issue. Fusion energy has the potential to change the world, to create a society where energy is clean, safe and virtually infinite. But as with all the other breakthroughs throughout history that have felt distant, we of course meet those who prefer to drive with their eyes in the rear-view mirror. Those who shook their heads at both the car, the internet and the vaccines. But the backwards have not taken us where we are today. If this becomes a reality, we can create a world where energy is not a luxury, but a right: clean, accessible and fair. But the EU needs to speed up and not slow down the pace of ensuring that current energy policies lead to fossil-free, safe access and low prices, especially for those who produce green energy today.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. The Conservative Party is now questioning whether we should future-proof jobs in the automotive industry. The U.S. and China are investing in electric cars. But then the right here will run in the ditch and babbling on about options that will be significantly more expensive for ordinary people. Volvo, Scania and other companies in Sweden have made investments based on decisions in this House. They are waiting for it to pay off. To pull away the carpet for them would be to disappoint Swedish industry. And the question is – will Europe become more competitive if we politicians constantly change the rules of the game? Is the auto industry even asking for this? No, what is needed is measures for infrastructure, increased demand, support for local communities, training for people who are going to take up the new jobs. So, I extend a hand to the Swedish Conservatives in this Parliament. Let us stand united for the more than 150,000 Swedish workers connected to the automotive industry, who I think expect us to stand up for them.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. Electricity prices in southern Sweden last week were 18,000 times higher in southern Sweden than in northern Sweden. If it were milk, a milk package in Landskrona would have cost over 260,000 SEK. Before the 2022 elections, the promises were very clear. With the vacuum cleaner at its peak, Ebba Busch promised lower prices. She built ten nuclear reactors from the pulpit and promised the Swedes a high-cost protection. But then the tax on electricity was increased and there was no high-cost protection. They also said no to privately funded offshore wind power. And nuclear power, it's now estimated to cost taxpayers at least $400 billion. But the basic problem, Mr President, is actually here in Europe. Sweden produces and exports. Then high prices are imported. The Swedish people do not accept this. All countries must follow the rules. Green electricity should pay off for consumers. For you can forget that there will be some new cables as long as it looks like this.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. Politicians like to talk warmly about new inventions – fission, quantum computers and electric aviation. But in our enthusiasm, we often forget something very important – that the best decisions on what to research will not be made in this House. Instead, we need to protect the local anchorage to secure the needs that are actually out there. I mean, look at the Arctic Six, 2,700 kilometers from here at the edge of the Arctic Circle. There, universities have joined forces and created a platform for research and education that makes a real difference. Together with authorities and local communities, they anchor themselves in the real conditions. If we want research to help achieve the policy objectives, it is not enough to talk about supercomputers – I know we are quite in agreement on this. Instead, the big vision must be based on reality, where researchers face the real problems and find the real solutions.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. Competitiveness is not just about counting the number of companies, but about building communities. Look at Luleå. There was a system error in how power is booked on the power grid. Together, municipalities, industries and authorities sat at the same table. What happened? Well, they released energy equivalent to an entire nuclear reactor. That's the power of collaboration. Or as when Norrbotten gathered to agree on where the power lines would be drawn. What otherwise takes years to investigate took two months. And at home in my own village Ludvika: When someone moves to us to work in the industry, we make sure that that person's partner also finds their place, their job, their opportunity. Competitiveness should not be created at the expense of the workers, on chasing short-term profits or pitting groups against each other, but on secure, strong and equal societies where everyone helps each other.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. Sometimes I wonder if people in here have missed how serious the situation is for the Baltic Sea. The cod stock has collapsed, and the same fate now awaits herring. The fishing culture in the regions along the coast of the Baltic Sea is in real danger of dying out. This week, a new punch came in the face when the Council of Ministers decides on fishing quotas for 2025. Outcome: a doubling of quotas for Baltic herring in the Central Baltic. It meets a few companies with major economic interests, at the expense of small-scale fishermen and anglers. This is a huge sign of weakness for both the EU and the Swedish government. It is completely unreasonable, knowing the urgency of the situation, to decide on continued overfishing. It's time to see reality, to change direction. We don't want to live in a dead ocean.