Swedish Krona - The Euro

The Euro

According to the 1995 accession treaty, Sweden is required to join the eurozone and therefore must convert to the euro at some point. Not withstanding this, on 14 September 2003, a consultative Swedish referendum was held on the euro, in which 56% of voters were opposed to the adoption of the currency, out of an overall turnout of 82.6%. The Swedish government has argued such a course of action is possible since one of the requirements for eurozone membership is a prior two-year membership of the ERM II. By simply choosing to stay outside the exchange rate mechanism, the Swedish government is provided a formal loophole avoiding the theoretical requirement of adopting the euro.

Some of Sweden's major parties continue to believe it would be in the national interest to join, but they have all pledged to abide by the results of the referendum for the time being, and have shown no interest in raising the issue again. There was an agreement among the parties not to discuss the issue before the 2010 general election. After that, a debate could start, leading to a new referendum in 2012 or later, though one would likely be held considerably later than that. Polls in 2005 and 2006 generally showed about 55% of respondents being opposed and 45% in favor, not counting those who are unsure (about 15%). In a poll from May 2007, 33.3% were in favor, while 53.8% were against, and 13.0% were uncertain.

In Dagens Nyheter, Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Prime Minister of Sweden stated a new referendum on the euro issue will not be held until support is gained from the people and all the major parties, and as such, the time is now at the discretion of the Social Democrats. He added, the request of Mona Sahlin, former leader of the Social Democratic Party, for deferral of a new referendum until after the 2010 mandate period should be respected.