Response to interpellation 2022/23:269 on the development of Swedish industry

Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Speaker, members present in the Chamber of the Swedish Parliament and you who are watching via the Parliament's website!

Lars Isacsson has asked me in what way I will act regarding the conditional requirements to stop investments in the development of northern Sweden and in what way I will act to simplify the permit process so that offshore wind power can be built quickly. Furthermore, Lars Isacsson has asked me what measures the government has taken to secure the industry's supply of competence.

We see an extensive re-industrialization in Norrbotten and Västerbotten counties and in many other places linked to fossil-free production and electrification. The Government's coordinator for the business sector's sustainable transition and the societal transformation in Norrbotten and Västerbotten counties, Peter Larsson, reports in his report from November 2022 the steps taken, the societal transformation taking place, and what the industry's opportunities and challenges look like moving forward.

In January, the government announced that a unified strategy for northern Sweden to accelerate the industrial green transition will be developed. The strategy will be holistic and long-term and promote the green re-industrialization. It will cover areas such as energy, mines, skills supply, community services as well as housing and infrastructure.

The government is working purposefully and actively with measures on a national level to simplify and speed up the permit processes and increase the pace of the energy transition. The environmental permit processes shall be simplified and shortened.

For example, the report of the Environmental Assessment Inquiry (SOU 2022:33) has been referred, and the matter is now being prepared in the Government Offices. Furthermore, an inquiry shall be appointed to simplify and shorten the environmental permit assessment according to the Environmental Code by making it more flexible, efficient, and predictable. The purpose is to secure the business sector's competitiveness and Swedish industrial production and promote a green transition with the export of climate-friendly products and technology. The Energy Markets Inspectorate has received more resources in the 2023 budget, among other things to shorten the lead times in the permit processes for electricity grids, and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has been tasked with producing more detailed guidance on environmental assessment.

One of the government's primary priorities is to work to secure new planned electricity production in Sweden. Energy policy needs to be developed and adjusted to be able to meet increased electricity consumption. The government is working to improve the conditions for new nuclear power and has proposed amendments to the Environmental Code to remove the limitation on the number of nuclear reactors as well as allow new reactors at more locations than the current three. The Climate Justice Inquiry, in its final report Justice for the Climate (SOU 2022:21), has proposed a number of new provisions as well as amendments to the Electricity Act and the Environmental Code that shall facilitate the expansion of electricity production and the electricity grid. The government has already moved forward with the Climate Justice Inquiry's proposal on improved guidance, among other things through assignments in the regulatory letters to Boverket and Naturvårdsverket.

The Government attaches great importance to a good supply of skills both for the business sector and in the welfare sector to secure our competitiveness. That Swedish companies have access to the skills needed to be able to develop and grow in Sweden is important for Sweden's ability to drive the climate transition and create new jobs throughout the country.

Arbetsförmedlingen has an important role in this context. This is also reflected in the agency's new instructions, which entered into force in December 2022. In them, a clear mandate is found linked to skills supply. Arbetsförmedlingen shall develop and improve the work with skills supply during large company establishments and company expansions. Arbetsförmedlingen has also, alongside the general work that the agency carries out, established an office for transformation and matching in the north with offices in Skellefteå. The office works with both private and public employers to counteract skills shortages to the greatest extent possible. We follow this work with great interest, ready to provide further assistance from a national level.

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Lars Isacsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister Ebba Busch, for the answer regarding the development of Swedish industry!

In 2010, I became a municipal councilor in the manufacturing industry municipality of Avesta. In 2011, there were cuts in the steel industry. It was a crisis. In 2012, there was a crisis in the paper industry. In one year, we lost 946 jobs within the manufacturing industry in Avesta municipality. In our labor market area with 10,000 jobs, we lost almost 10 percent in one year.

When the Swedish industry was discussed, the then Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt spoke of that which has basically gone. In the national media, Bergslagen was described as a rust belt, as badlands, as a wasteland.

It was for this reason that we started something called the Avesta talks on the future of Swedish basic industry. We felt that no one was talking about Swedish industry. We have these talks with the business community, academia, and the industrial municipalities together with national politics.

In 2015, the theme for the talks was energy policy, and at that time, an energy agreement was being requested. In 2016, an energy agreement was reached. I cannot say it was thanks to the Avesta talks, but perhaps we contributed something.

Since 2011 and 2012, the view on Swedish basic industry has truly changed. In 2014, Stefan Löfven placed a new industrial policy high on the agenda. The then Minister for Enterprise, Mikael Damberg, was involved in developing Industry 4.0. Swedish industry is once again world-leading and showed, not least during the corona pandemic, how important it is for Swedish prosperity and Swedish GDP. This constitutes a vindication and evokes a pride, not least in industrial towns like the one I come from.

My fear is that we are back to the old view that industry is basically gone. It may sound harsh, but that is how one can interpret the questioning and statements about trying to stifle industrial investments in the green transition that have come in recent months from government parties, SD, and bourgeois columnists. This was, Mr. Speaker, the reason I posed my question to the Minister.

I think that the Minister in his answer reasons well regarding permit processes and how we can streamline them. I also think that it is absolutely necessary.

It is also good that you bring up the state coordinator in the north. But this is something we need to see in the whole country. I hope that the way of working and the lessons learned spread, because this does not only apply to Norrbotten and Västerbotten. I believe that everyone who has worked with large establishments and investments knows that the state's coordination is a problem. You meet the County Administrative Board, the Swedish Mapping Authority, the Transport Administration, Svenska kraftnät, Vattenfall – everyone works in silos, and no one has the mandate to bring them together.

Speaking of expansion and establishments throughout Sweden, I wonder if the Minister for Enterprise has any idea which is the largest industrial order that has come to Sweden.

Furthermore, my first question remains: Will the Minister act regarding the conditional requirements to stop investments in northern Sweden? Can the Minister say anything about the applications for offshore wind power that are on the Government's desk? And does she know which is the largest industrial order that has come to Sweden?

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Speaker! I would really like to thank Lars Isacsson for these questions from one former municipal councilor to another. I believe, Mr. Speaker, that there is a greater understanding among us, who are used to not only being able to move forward with grand speeches - we must also deliver to the municipal residents. They will see whether that nursing home that the municipality's residents need is there or not in time. They will see if the conditions exist to say yes to the new factory or the new company that wants to establish itself.

We also, Mr. Speaker, have experience of how much potential, locally and regionally, is never realized because one ends up caught between different national legislations that are applied differently in different parts of the country and regulate permit processes and timeframes that do not keep pace with the needs when it comes to taking advantage of the full potential. I hope that there is an opportunity to join forces on several of these issues in the future.

I also want, in order to meet the concern that the member raises regarding what actually applies in terms of the government's view on industry, to state that this government is convinced that companies are Sweden's job creators. We have the best conditions to manage the green transition in cooperation with the business sector. It is the business sector that in many ways is in the driver's seat for the green transition, and it is the producing parts of Sweden that we need to take advantage of: our heavy, important, proud industry. It is that which has built the prosperity in Sweden and paved the way for a small, export-dependent country in northern Europe to become absolutely world-leading in so many areas, not least regarding our forest and our ore. It is they who now truly show that something with such proud, long and old history is also to the highest degree the future for our country.

The day before yesterday, I came home after two days in Västerbotten, where I visited Renström, Boliden's mine outside Skellefteå which is Sweden's deepest. Here it is truly shown that Sweden has the answer to the so-called million dollar question, the big, difficult question of whether it is possible to achieve a green transition and high-set climate goals and at the same time safeguard jobs and a strong welfare. The answer is yes.

We will have more entries, so I will begin to address some more details regarding the follow-up questions that the member posed. The absolutely most important, major question in this interpellation, as I perceive it, concerns whether the strategy will now be changed and whether I, as Minister for Energy and Industry, share the view that we should condition the investments in northern Sweden on nuclear power in southern Sweden.

No. We need to see that it has been exactly the opposite – that it is perhaps rather northern Sweden that should have conditioned a part of what has happened in southern Sweden. Northern Sweden should not have to compensate because southern Sweden has been deprived of 3,000 megawatts of dispatchable electricity; I believe my view on the decisions regarding Ringhals 1 and 2 is well known. We must stop the view that northern Sweden should solve southern Sweden's problems.

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Lars Isacsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister Ebba Busch, not least for the clear answer to my first question regarding the conditional requirements – it is truly appreciated!

I am here debating industrial policy with you, but I also had an invitation to Boliden and Garpenberg for a mine visit today. Speaking of industrial tradition, they have had uninterrupted industrial production since the year 1000 – that is quite impressive.

I understand that the question of the largest industrial order is difficult to answer. This may be because it does not receive much space in national media. Hitachi Energy in Ludvika/Smedjebacken received an order for transformers and power transmission for offshore wind power for 147 billion kronor a few weeks ago, a staggering sum. I checked what the state budget's revenues for 2022 were: 1,286 billion. An order of 147 billion did not even get a mention in Aftonbladet or Expressen; it became articles in Nya Ludvika Tidning.

When it comes to the supply of skills to the new industries or to expansions, such as in Hitachifallet, the minister refers in his answer to Arbetsförmedlingen. I do not think that actually reassures any municipal council or company. Arbetsförmedlingen is underfunded and has lost much knowledge about the local business community. The reform of Arbetsförmedlingen that was included in the January agreement did not make it any better, and there we Social Democrats also have a responsibility.

But the investment in Arbetsförmedlingen of 50 million rhymes poorly with the fact that, at the same time, in the autumn budget, one reduces by 1.5 billion on labor market measures. If 50 million is divided among the country's municipalities, it gives 50,000 kronor to Smedjebacken and 130,000 to Ludvika, where a new order of 147 billion is coming and thousands of new workers are needed.

You were a speaker at Svenskt Näringsliv's business days a few weeks ago, where I was also present. On Svenskt Näringsliv's website, the following is stated: "Right now, a global race is taking place. Countries and regions are competing to lead the transition to a fossil-free economy. In Sweden, investments are being made in the development of new technology, digital solutions, fossil-free industries, and innovations that both reduce emissions and shorten the distance between people." It continues: "The risk otherwise is that Sweden falls behind. [.] That the green transition is delayed and that the winners are crowned somewhere else. With the right conditions, Swedish companies can continue to solve our greatest challenges."

In the newspaper Näringslivet, one can read that SSAB's CEO Martin Lindqvist says: "The train for Swedish competitiveness is moving now when it comes to the production of fossil-free steel. We are in the middle of a global race. Both the USA and Finland want our carbon-free production."

Volvo Trucks has indicated that they are considering moving new production to the USA. Northvolt speaks of being courted by the USA, which wants them to invest there instead of in the EU and Sweden.

Mr. Speaker! I am a little afraid that the Tidö parties and the Swedish right actively contribute to this development, primarily in two ways: by opposing the expansion of wind power and by not inviting [others] to energy policy discussions. I want to ask the Minister for Energy why there is no desire for a cross-bloc energy agreement with common long-term rules of the game, something that is being requested by the business community.

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Speaker! There are some questions regarding skills supply that I would like to elaborate on and return to, but let us take up the last part.

I have not met any entrepreneur from any part of the business community or any organization that says that it is precisely this form, this setup, or this group that is needed for the long-term rules of the game. Many say that it does not need to be a question of a new energy agreement, they just know what applies.

I would like to return the question to Lars Isacsson: What are we not in agreement on regarding energy policy? My impression is that there are four coalition parties that constitute a majority in the Swedish Riksdag. There is an enormous will on my part as a responsible minister in the government to join forces with the Social Democrats regarding the conditions for a green transition and, not least, the conditions for industry.

Is there any part of the energy policy that we disagree on? I perceive that we are now paving the way for solar and wind on land and at sea. We want to shorten the permit process, and we want to go even further than what has been achieved so far. We want to pave the way for new nuclear power and also research and innovation for types of power supply that do not exist today.

Is there any part where we do not agree? My picture is that we are now five parties that have a clear basis for the energy supply in Sweden. Is there any part where we do not agree? Then there may be room for negotiations. But is there any part where we disagree?

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Lars Isacsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! I believe that the government and the Social Democrats could quickly reach an agreement on an energy agreement, that is to say, long-term rules of the game. What I am afraid of, and also many other Social Democrats, is the Sweden Democrats' view on stopping or removing wind power. It is my answer – not the party's answer.

Then it was the question of necessary investments in energy production. We must continue. It cannot become a culture war against the climate, or for nuclear power and against wind power, but we need all types of energy.

I would like to thank the Minister for Enterprise for the debate, and I wish we had had more time. But perhaps we can find that later. But I thought I would venture to make a few co-submissions: Invite a cross-bloc energy settlement! Say yes to the completed applications for offshore wind power that are on the government's table! Proceed with new nuclear power! In order for it to go somewhat quickly, I say, as a former municipal council member, that one should build where nuclear power already exists, that is, in the nuclear power municipalities where there is knowledge and support in the population. If it is difficult for a municipal politician to build wind power, it is not easier to get nuclear power through as a neighbor. Streamline hydropower, but do it in a way where the living conditions for people, animals, and nature also have greater significance than today. We need more wind power and solar power as well as clear rules for how the neighbors and the municipalities that contribute shall be compensated.

There is a future for Swedish basic industry and our industrial municipalities. We have made it through all industrial revolutions so far, and we want to continue to do so. There must also be a forward-looking spirit, a drive and a vision that all of Sweden shall live.

A big thank you for the debate and good luck in your important work!

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Speaker! I thank Lars Isacsson for the interpellation. I agree with the picture that we would have needed a few more minutes.

I will start by saying congratulations to Smedjebacken. I am involved in some of the processes, and it is among the finest things I am allowed to do in my new assignment. In those moments, I feel most like a municipal councilor, but for Sweden, and I try to help companies see the advantage of placing large orders or operations in Sweden.

The twelve converter stations that are in the order that Hitachi has placed will help to transfer electricity from offshore wind farms in the North Sea and southward. That says a lot about our great challenge. There is a significant surplus in electricity production on certain days of the year, but then there is not enough capacity - not electricity - where it is needed when it is needed. We need to resolve that equation.

I still want to repeat my question. Regardless of what individual representatives for Sverigedemokraterna, Liberalerna, Kristdemokraterna, and Moderaterna say, the line is that all good forces are needed, where wind power and nuclear power are included. That line applies. There is no doubt about that, regardless of what individuals say. But when it comes to how we get up the pace and the tempo, I would like to join forces with Socialdemokraterna.

I agree with the view that we cannot place the issue of skills supply on Arbetsförmedlingen. A massive initiative on vocational training is taking place moving forward. We will need to do more of such. There are major shortages of people in many of these occupations, and much needs to happen in a practical sense from a local perspective. My department is responsible for holding together what we call the northern strategy, and it would be fruitful to sit down and hear concrete input on how we do that in the best way.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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