Response to interpellation 2024/25:553 on initiatives during the years of cooperation
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD argues that companies are the engine of the economy and that the government is working to strengthen entrepreneurship through regulatory simplification 1. KD wants to remove obstacles for women's entrepreneurship 1 2 and wants cooperative business forms to be welcomed in public procurement 3. KD sees cooperative companies as an important part of the regulatory simplification agenda 4 and has given Coompanion 25 million kronor in grants 4. S argues that cooperative companies are important for social development, have a high survival rate, and a large proportion of female CEOs 5. S argues that increased knowledge among banks and authorities, as well as fair competition conditions, are needed.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! Per-Arne Håkansson has asked me whether I assess, from my area of responsibility, that there are opportunities to take advantage of this occasion for knowledge dissemination and more cooperative development during the year of the UN's declared cooperation, and whether I intend to take initiatives to increase cooperative entrepreneurship in Sweden and thereby strengthen the diversity of business forms in the commercial sector.
Companies, regardless of corporate form, are the engine of Sweden's economy. They create jobs, drive innovation, and build prosperity. Without strong and competitive companies, we can neither finance our welfare nor meet the challenges of the future. Therefore, we must ensure that Sweden's companies are given the best possible conditions to grow, invest, and hire.
At the same time, we know that many entrepreneurs in Sweden face great difficulties. Bureaucracy, high administrative costs, and of course an uncertain world make it difficult to run and develop businesses in the best way. The government has as an expressed goal to strengthen entrepreneurship in Sweden and to strengthen the conditions for entrepreneurship. We want to create an environment where more people dare to take the step to start, run, and own companies – where innovation, creativity, and hard work are rewarded.
When it comes to reaching that, I would like to highlight the government's offensive agenda for simplifying regulations. We need to simplify and modernize the regulatory framework so that entrepreneurs can focus their energy on developing their business ideas, creating more jobs, and contributing to society. By creating good conditions for companies – and particularly small companies – we create conditions for the Swedish economy as a whole to grow and continue to be internationally competitive.
It is important that those who have good business ideas have the opportunity to realize them. At the same time, we see that more men than women choose to run businesses. From the government's side, we are therefore actively working to remove the obstacles that unjustifiably deter women from entrepreneurship. By, among other things, supporting initiatives for entrepreneurship among young people, we want to give more young women the opportunity and the tools to realize their ideas. When I meet entrepreneurs and investors, they often describe just Ung Företagsamhet as more valuable than almost all other strategies combined to increase women's entrepreneurship. Women's entrepreneurship is a priority area that we believe is important to strengthen Swedish competitiveness.
The Government will continue to work to strengthen the conditions for all of Sweden's companies, regardless of in what form they are operated and where they are operated. All companies shall have good opportunities to develop and thereby contribute to strengthening Swedish competitiveness.
Per-Arne Håkansson (S)
Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by thanking for the answer from Minister for Enterprise Ebba Busch.
The purpose of my interpellation is precisely to highlight the importance of cooperative entrepreneurship for societal development, both locally and globally. Now that I have received the answer from Ebba Busch, I can state that much was mentioned regarding entrepreneurship and cooperation with the business sector. But it was perhaps more general arguments that were presented. I therefore want to link the question more to the cooperative.
The United Nations has declared 2025 as the Year of Cooperation. Therefore, I see it as important that we take advantage of the opportunity in Sweden to strengthen knowledge and commitment from a broad perspective when it comes to activities and companies built on a common idea where cooperation, awareness, and development are at the center.
The cooperative sector in Sweden generates over 600 billion kronor annually and employs approximately 100,000 people. It constitutes a significant part of the total GDP. The profit is reinvested in the operations, where ideas can be developed and companies and jobs are created.
In this context, it can also be mentioned that newly started cooperative companies have shown a high survival rate compared to other forms of companies.
Ebba Busch highlights Ung Företagsamhet. It is an organization that I have full respect for and which has functioned for a long time. This is not, as I see it, in opposition to cooperative entrepreneurship.
Ebba Busch also highlights female entrepreneurship as a priority area for the government. According to the facts I have received from Svensk Kooperation, which are based on Andra AP-fondens kvinnoindex and the report on cooperative companies in Sweden, the cooperative companies have more than twice as many women as CEOs compared to listed companies. In the management teams, the proportion of women is also significantly larger than in the listed companies.
I find it difficult to believe that there would be a lack of interest from the government for this type of undertaking based on those aspects.
When the UN last carried out an initiative on the year of cooperation – it was 2012 – the government at the time was led by Fredrik Reinfeldt, and Maud Olofsson of C was the Minister for Enterprise. They took, as I have understood, an initiative at an early stage for dialogue with the cooperative companies in Sweden to listen to them and together perhaps shape arrangements. No such contact has, as I have understood, been taken for this year.
Other countries in our vicinity have long planned and implemented initiatives. In the United Kingdom, the government has issued a promise to double the cooperative sector, and in our neighboring country Denmark, it is reported that the government has introduced some legislative changes to promote more cooperative entrepreneurship.
The European Commission, for its part, highlights the role of cooperation as a force for change and for economic and social resilience.
I am convinced that Ebba Busch is well aware of this. I still want to follow up on the question, because the year is ongoing. As said, it is not over yet. There is an opportunity to act and take initiative in this area. Does Ebba Busch not see opportunities to do things to strengthen growth, job creation, and social development when it comes to promoting the development of just the cooperative companies?
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! I think it is very good that we have this interpellation debate. When corporate issues are raised in different contexts just to encourage more people to dare to take the step, one notices that there is a rather narrow view on what forms one can start companies in. That is one reason why we have invested a lot of time and effort in highlighting entrepreneurship broadly in various ways.
That is why I mention, for example, Ung Företagsamhet. That is why I mention the investments that have been made regarding women's entrepreneurship. We also highlight the breadth of forms of entrepreneurship. We do not, therefore, stop at the UF model but use the UF contexts where we are involved to also demonstrate the wide flora of business forms that exist.
It is a bit difficult to determine the exact number of cooperative enterprises in Sweden because there isn't exactly a specific corporate form for cooperation in that way. But what we know is that the most common corporate form for cooperative entrepreneurship is an economic association (ekonomisk förening). There are approximately 40,000 such associations in the country, and every year, on average, about 400 new cooperative enterprises are started in Sweden.
I see this as something very positive as Minister for Enterprise, precisely against the background of what Per-Arne Håkansson highlighted. It is about the statistics we have on how cooperative companies have had a tendency to handle fluctuations, trends, and changes in a different way because one has a different and broader interest in the company.
This brings me to the broad agenda of regulatory simplification that we are driving. We allocated an additional 50 million kronor to what is called verksamt.se – which is a corporate portal that is very appreciated – specifically to facilitate and pave the way for new companies to start. The service has been operational since 2009. It has been protected by several governments and is one of the individually most important factors when it comes to it being easy to start companies in Sweden and making it even easier.
As part of the government's offensive simplification agenda, we have also established several councils. The Simplification Council is one of them. It is now up and running, and work is in full swing. It is reasonable that the question of how we can facilitate different types of corporate forms becomes part of what the Simplification Council is actively working on.
Per-Arne Håkansson (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank you for the answer and the reasoning.
Not least in times of uncertainty in the world, as Ebba Busch mentioned, and an increased security situation, there may be reason to highlight the local and national situation. Here, the cooperative activities can play a role. They do not move abroad and perhaps do not play countries and tax systems against each other. There is a democratic business model, and the principle is: one member, one vote. It can be a farmer, consumers, residents, or policyholders. There is an organization, Svensk Kooperation, which gathers a large part of both the cooperative and the mutual, customer-owned companies. There are large national companies such as Folksam, Länsförsäkringar, Skandia, and HSB, but also those more regionally and locally oriented such as Bjäre Kraft in my home region in northwestern Skåne, Äppelriket Österlen, Kristianstadsortens Lagerhusförening, and Svalövs Montessori, to give a few other examples. It is, therefore, a broad flora of activities.
A few days ago, the cross-party cooperative network here in the Riksdag received a visit from Jeroen Douglas, the Director-General of the International Cooperative Alliance. The Alliance is a partner of the UN during the year, and the Director-General accounted for the ongoing activities and initiatives that are the reason why the UN is now highlighting the importance of cooperation and emphasizing the importance of a sustainable business model and protecting and developing stable and inclusive societies.
I also noted, which perhaps Ebba Busch also did, that in Dagens industri, proposals were delivered that might be worth taking advantage of from the collective Swedish cooperative movement, precisely to strengthen this.
The proposals concern knowledge-enhancing measures and the preservation of the potential of cooperative companies, and it is argued that increased knowledge is needed among banks, authorities, and public funders, as well as fair competition conditions for cooperative and mutual companies. It is pointed out that the Companies Act is currently perhaps the most prominent, which makes it more difficult for, for example, energy cooperatives and other mutual companies to obtain the same opportunities for investment support. The issue of capital on equal terms regardless of corporate form was also highlighted. There are several cooperative companies that testify that they cannot even open a bank account, which perhaps is due to the fact that the difference between an economic and a non-profit association is not seen.
All of this is stated by 27–28 well-established cooperative business leaders with their names and the organization behind them. Ebba Busch perhaps knows about this and has seen it, and therefore I want to ask if the minister can imagine considering some of these constructive and forward-looking proposals to strengthen Swedish growth and competitiveness.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! The answer to Per-Arne Håkansson's follow-up question is briefly yes – I have noted this, and there are several parts that we will consider.
We have taken some initiatives concerning reviewing the Public Procurement Act, the Choice System Act, and the like to ensure that we welcome a breadth and a flora of actors. Given just the cooperative business's very good track record in demonstrating long-term perspective in operations, this is something that I think is worth highlighting more.
In addition to what Per-Arne Håkansson highlights regarding the need to increase knowledge and review how different types of business entities are treated, benefited, or disadvantaged in existing systems, we have also seen a need to ensure that the advantages of cooperative enterprises are recognized when it comes to one of the heaviest areas of public procurement in Sweden, namely the Public Procurement Act.
We also see that this form of ownership risks being hit even harder by administrative costs, compliance costs, which have had a tendency to increase in Sweden. Some of this has been well-justified. We are making many tough efforts to fight crime that has also entered the business sector, but in 2023 alone, these costs increased by 1.4 billion. With this year's increase, the total annual costs for companies to comply with regulations are now estimated at a staggering 379 billion kronor.
This is also the reason why we are pushing so hard on the issue of regulatory simplification. It is also, of course, about ensuring that proven long-term and sustainable business forms are not disadvantaged in this system, and in that case, I am specifically speaking about the cooperative business forms.
Per-Arne Håkansson (S)
Madam Speaker! I would like to thank Ebba Busch for the debate and exchange of views so far and think that we may have moved the issue forward at least.
I believe it is of great importance that the dialogue and cooperation with the cooperative enterprises be brought in. I believe that we in Sweden have much to gain from strengthening the cooperation between the business sector, society, and academia to together build the country stronger. The cooperative activities are, after all, long-term oriented towards growth, entrepreneurship, equality, and a democratic society. The broad popular perspective and the local anchoring are also important to emphasize.
In this context, it can also be mentioned that private profit interest is not the driving force in cooperative entrepreneurship, but rather it is a responsibility taken together with others. Limited companies obviously have their own dynamics and play an important role when it comes to investments and development, but it has also been something of a benchmark for Swedish entrepreneurship since the 1970s and onwards. I think that in the time we now live in, with an increased focus on security and local preparedness, it can be worth bringing the activities of cooperative companies into the conversation in a more tangible way.
My hope is that Ebba Busch will see this potential. The year is not over, as said; there are opportunities to act to strengthen the development in this area. The request that Sweden has received from the UN is that this is important for creating a safer and more sustainable world. This also applies to Sweden, and I therefore look forward to following up and checking the issues moving forward.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! I would like to thank for this interpellation from Per-Arne Håkansson, which has contributed to answering the UN's appeal to Sweden to put the question on the agenda.
We are working on very many issues simultaneously, and this is something that we have discussed and that I myself have highlighted. It is clear that an interpellation of this kind serves the function of a spotlight on the government to put even more focus on the area, which is the entire purpose of this type of debate. I would therefore like to start by thanking for that and being transparent and showing that it has that effect.
In my final contribution here, I want to raise the issue of Coompanion. Through Tillväxtverket's tender, based on the ordinance on state grants for cooperative development, they have received 25 million kronor in grants for 2024. Coompanion received operating grants for consultancy, education, and information regarding precisely the start and development of cooperative entrepreneurship, in connection with the request regarding the need for knowledge-enhancing measures.
The purpose was partly to contribute to a diversity of competitive entrepreneurs, and partly to contribute locally and regionally to increasing attractiveness through development and new solutions, for example by maintaining local service and support for this form of business.
I believe that in these times it is extra important to pave the way for entrepreneurship that has proven to be able to endure over time. We therefore look forward to highlighting this perspective within the framework of the deregulation agenda that we have now rolled out with implementation councils, simplification councils, and many other initiatives regarding UF-entrepreneurship and women's entrepreneurship in general. There, I believe that cooperative enterprises can play a major role.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.