Strong police cooperation in the Tornedalen region
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerned an intensified police cooperation between Sweden and Finland in the Tornedalen region to improve response times and combat cross-border crime 1 2 3. S argued that the agreement increases flexibility and safety in rural areas through faster interventions in serious accidents and crimes 1. V was positive about the cooperation but demanded a reservation to guarantee legal certainty and oversight through JO and JK 4. SD emphasized the need to break up gangs that smuggle drugs and weapons across the border 2. M asserted that the cooperation is crucial to meet the internal security threat and the Nordic situation 3. C considered the proposal to be smart and effective for utilizing shared resources 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Petter Löberg (S)
Mr. Speaker! Tornedalen is a bit special, we usually say when we go up to visit the parents-in-law, living just north of the Arctic Circle. It is the northern lights and the midnight sun. It is the beautiful Torne River. It is the most palpable multilingualism in the region. It is the borderland. It is Tornedalen.
If one enjoys a bit of genealogy, one sees that the families and the farms have historically existed on both sides of the river. It has been natural to move back and forth - it doesn't matter either way.
The distances are also tangible. The geographical distances are long. In border regions such as Tornedalen, there is a need for ambulances, rescue services, and fire brigades to be able to quickly cross the national border to carry out emergency deployments. Therefore, the undersigned countries signed a joint agreement in 2021 - a declaration of intent for deepened cooperation regarding crisis preparedness, civil defense, and rescue services.
Tomorrow, the Riksdag can hopefully make a decision to approve an agreement between Sweden and the neighboring country with the brother people - Finland. The agreement entails a deepened police cooperation - finally - with associated legislative changes.
I vote in favor of the proposal in the report.
Since I am first in the debate, I will briefly state the content. The proposal means that Finnish police officers and policewomen may perform certain police tasks on Swedish territory. Provisions are proposed that make it possible to bring in, for example, Finnish service weapons and which regulate the associated powers of the police officers.
The proposal implies enormous advantages for the flexibility in the entire region and for the population's security. There are a number of main reasons that we can see very clearly in advance.
Above all, it is naturally about the response time. It will be possible to have significantly faster interventions with this proposal when it comes to both serious accidents and serious crime. This also leads to more effective crime fighting. This undoubtedly strengthens the operational capacity to handle murder, robbery, rape, human trafficking etcetera in the region. The cooperation simply makes it possible to quickly mobilize resources from both countries. It is extremely valuable given how sparsely populated the area is and how low the police density is. Furthermore, it leads, as so often when one cooperates, to improved information exchange between the police forces in the different countries. This naturally also contributes to all the advantages that were mentioned earlier.
One can, of course, also see a number of complications in connection with this. The Police Union raises – as usual, I was about to say – very wise perspectives. It can be about practical or legal challenges that arise. It can be language barriers. It can be different cultures within the different police authorities. It can be differences in legislation that are still not fully regulated with this agreement. There will be a need for common and adequate training. Naturally, it will also require cooperation and mutual adjustment.
There will be amounts of complications and conflicts of objectives. Most of them we cannot even foresee, but they will appear tomorrow and in the future as problems that we didn't even know existed. Vänsterpartiet raises in its reservation a perspective linked to the supervision, which one might also have to adjust in hindsight – who knows. So gradually we will see things that need to be adjusted.
Despite this, we must let this cooperation proceed and grow organically between people in rural areas, which is what it actually concerns. In the border regions, people on good grounds are extremely frustrated that the police station is only open three hours a week. There is a concern that it could take 45 minutes or perhaps even longer before a police officer arrives on site if one is subjected to a violent crime. The police officers who work daily see that border obstacles, bureaucratic hurdles, and national borders put a spoke in the wheels of being able to solve crimes and fulfill the tasks they have.
We nevertheless have a fundamentally optimistic attitude - this agreement and these legislative changes will lead to increased cooperation. But cooperation across national borders is fragile. We can see how the geopolitical changes in the northern hemisphere have caused cooperation in the Barents Sea region and in the Nordic region to more or less collapse. Something that was actually in motion for many years is now all of a sudden non-existent, and that concerns, of course, primarily Russia.
We saw how people closed themselves off in connection with the pandemic. The Swedish-Norwegian and Swedish-Finnish relations, which we had worked on for an incredibly long time, suffered a serious setback. Mistrust between groups and individuals grew. Decades of relationship building were replaced by mistrust towards strategies and perspectives during the pandemic. This is, of course, a setback.
But in times of setbacks and barrier-building, we spit in our hands and try to look forward and be constructive. This agreement, which the previous government took the initiative for, is such an example. We don't overcomplicate it but do as we usually do and conclude an agreement - something like that.
Gudrun Nordborg (V)
Mr. Speaker! I and the Left Party are very positive about this agreement. There are very many advantages to strengthening cooperation in our border areas. It is, as Petter just stated, the rural areas it is about. There, it can be extra important to achieve a cooperation.
We have already seen that such a cooperation leads to fruitful efforts against, among other things, smuggling and the introduction of narcotics and other things that have occurred more freely previously. This will now be developed.
It is about a cooperation that primarily aims at being able to combat serious crime. Swedish police shall be able to enter Finland and vice versa. One shall also be able to deploy urgently, without having a major anchoring before acting, in order, above all, to be able to save lives.
But we from Vänsterpartiet have a small objection. Therefore, we have written a reservation. We would like it to be proceeded with and guaranteed that legal certainty and quality are ensured by letting both JO and JK have control over the Finnish police who may come over to the Swedish side. It is, in any case, today a suspicious gap in terms of how far JK and JO can reach when it comes to control over precisely legal certainty and quality regarding the foreign police.
We would like it to be guaranteed that one has the same working conditions regardless of which nation one so to speak belongs to when acting in Sweden. We believe it is important to signal so that there is a stronger confidence that one works under the same conditions regardless of nationality in the police operation.
I vote in favor of the original proposal but also of the reservation that the Left Party has, which becomes an addition.
Katja Nyberg (SD)
Mr. Speaker! As a police officer, it is distressing to hear that "the Swedish situation" has become an accepted term in our Nordic neighboring countries when talking about serious crime.
In Denmark, the security situation with a high threat level, where Danish gangs order murders and attacks from young criminals in Sweden, has been a problem for a long time. Most of us surely remember the so-called death patrol's murders in Danish Herlev in 2019. And from there, it has only continued.
Earlier this year, Finnish police made a historically large seizure of narcotics. They discovered 42 kilos of amphetamine and quantities of firearms and explosives - all smuggled from Sweden.
Criminal gangs from Sweden also send people to Iceland who attempt to take over the Icelandic market. There, the number of murders is now at a record high.
Mr. Speaker! The border against Finland in Tornedalen can be compared to a municipal border. This is exploited by criminal networks, which smuggle money, drugs, and weapons between the countries. Ten years ago, Finnish police together with customs seized hectograms. Now it is kilograms that are seized, and police and customs see clear connections to the criminal networks in Sweden. Payment for the drugs that are brought into Finland consists of money and weapons, which in turn feed the criminal economies in Sweden.
In other words, there are good reasons to facilitate police cooperation between Sweden and Finland as much as possible. This is where the new legislation comes into play.
Today, foreign police officers can in principle not carry out police activities on Swedish territory other than in the form of assistants to Swedish police and then always in the presence of Swedish police. With the government's bill, Finnish police will be able to act independently in the Swedish part of the Tornedalen region.
Such a cooperation will be able to be actualized if a crime occurs in Swedish Tornedalen and the nearest available patrol is on the Finnish side. Swedish police will then be able to request the Finnish command center to send that patrol. If Finnish police arrive first at the scene, they will have the authority to perform a number of measures while waiting for their Swedish colleagues. This involves, for example, violence, the arrest of a suspect, body searches, performing house searches, conducting interrogations, and initial investigative measures.
Swedish police will of course have similar powers on the Finnish side, according to Finnish legislation.
Mr. Speaker! The current government's mandate received the people's mandate to break the gangs and restore the normal Swedish state. Now, another building block is in place.
Fredrik Kärrholm (M)
Mr. Speaker! No government has ever before done so much for the Swedish police. It is about record-high appropriations, more coercive measures to investigate crimes, more coercive measures against wanted persons, coercive measures for preventive purposes, increased support from security guards, increased support from the Armed Forces, expanded powers at the border and security zones. Insulting the police is criminalized. It is also about anonymity protection, a comprehensive camera offensive, new forfeiture legislation, increased opportunities to arrest and detain, and increased opportunities for information exchange.
Another thing that particularly deserves to be mentioned is that we ensure that wages can be raised for Swedish police officers. It is well-deserved, and it is required to attract more capable men and women to the profession.
Unfortunately, the apprentice salary was not raised even once during the S government's time in power. Now it is being raised by 8,000 kronor.
All of this is important. A stronger police force is a prerequisite for pushing back crime. The Swedish people can trust that the police will do what is required. Sweden's police can trust that the Moderaterna will provide all the conditions that are needed.
Mr. Speaker! Now we also ensure that we strengthen the operational cooperation with the police in our neighboring country Finland. It is obviously significant that one can act together against cross-border crime.
The border between our countries is also long. That Swedish and Finnish police can assist each other so that one can arrive as quickly as possible can be of great importance in serious crimes such as rape or robbery. Ultimately, it can be a matter of saving lives.
The government is deepening Nordic cooperation on a broader level with Finland as well as with Norway and Denmark. An important part of meeting an external security threat is, of course, the NATO cooperation. But we also have an internal security threat, and to meet that, police cooperation with our neighboring countries is important.
The expression "the Swedish condition" has been used for many years in the debate in our Nordic neighboring countries, while the then Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson denied and downplayed the problems. Now we are speaking plainly and doing what is required to combat crime.
Unfortunately, a "Nordic situation" has prevailed for some time. In a debate article this week, all five chairpersons of the respective countries' police associations in the Nordic countries wrote about how the problems with organized crime and severe gang violence have spread. Danish gangs cooperate with Swedish gangs. Norway has a frightening development with violence and severe crime among young people. Earlier this year, the Finnish police made a historically large seizure of quantities of firearms and explosives. The Nordic police associations request exactly what we are doing now: increased cooperation to prevent crime, arrest, and prosecute.
I look forward to us in the Riksdag tomorrow approving the cooperation agreement with Finland.
Ulrika Liljeberg (C)
Mr. Speaker! This agreement provides increased security in both Finland and Sweden, for the people in the Tornedalen region on both sides of the border. This agreement provides increased impact against crime in the same region. This agreement is also a good way to effectively use our common economic and personnel resources.
This is, in short, a very good, reasonable and smart proposal, and we from Centerpartiet urge approval of the committee's proposal in the report, which is in accordance with the government's proposal.
The deliberation was hereby concluded.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.