Response to interpellation 2025/26:136 on supply preparedness as a matter of public interest
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns supply readiness and the need to secure the availability of critical societal goods, particularly limestone for the steel industry. KD argues that a robust business sector is part of the total defense 1. The government has established a new readiness sector for industry, construction, and trade to strengthen supply chains 1 2. KD wants to simplify environmental assessments through a new agency to create predictability for investments 1 2 3. S believes that Sweden should use the public interest more in assessments to ensure the extraction of necessary products, as species protection is currently often prioritized higher than national interests 4 5 6. S argues that it is unreasonable to be forced to import almost all limestone for steel production 6.
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)
Isak From has asked the Minister for Civil Defence both whether the Minister and the Government intend to take any initiatives to enable supply preparedness and public interest to be given greater weight in the authorities' interpretation of which input goods should be considered critical for society, and what the Minister and the Government intend to do to enable limestone production suitable for the steel industry on Gotland.
As the Chamber sees it, I am not the Minister for Civil Preparedness, but the work within the government is so distributed that it is I who, with pleasure, answers the interpellation.
A robust and resilient business sector is a central part of a strong total defense. The total defense's ability to maintain industrial activity during times of crisis or heightened alert is important, and the supply of input materials such as lime constitutes an important prerequisite for maintaining these activities. The Government has seen a need to strengthen Sweden's ability to maintain necessary supply chains to ensure access to society-critical goods and services during crisis, heightened alert, and war.
Against that background, the government has decided to establish a new preparedness sector for industry, construction, and trade. Tillväxtverket has been appointed as the sector's responsible authority. Sveriges geologiska undersökning (SGU) and Boverket are new preparedness authorities. The overall purpose of the new sector is to assist the business sector in ensuring the availability of socially important services and goods during a crisis or high state of alert. Through this structure, supply preparedness and public interest are given a clearer and more unified role in the work of both identifying and managing dependencies on socially critical input goods.
Isak From highlights in particular the importance of limestone as an input material. I can only agree that limestone is an important industrial material, which is only quarried in a few places in Sweden and is a necessary input material in steel production. This makes the availability of limestone strategically important for the security of supply. The limestone on northern Gotland is also important for our neighboring country Finland. Securing the availability of such input materials is therefore part of the government's work to strengthen the total defense and the business sector's resilience.
An important part of guaranteeing the supply readiness moving forward is to simplify and shorten the permit processes. Therefore, the government has appointed the so-called Environmental Permit Inquiry and intends to proceed with the inquiry's proposal to establish a new environmental permit authority. It is an important step to fundamentally reform the environmental permitting and to ensure that the permit processes become more flexible, efficient, and predictable. In this way, the conditions for investments and long-term sustainable production are improved, even for operations that are important for the total defense and the supply readiness.
Regarding the specific question concerning lime production on Gotland, the government cannot comment on ongoing cases in court or those being prepared within the Government Offices. The government's responsibility is to set the overall frameworks, strengthen the preparedness for supply, and create long-term predictable and legally secure conditions for the companies that wish to invest and thereby contribute to the total defense.
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker! Good morning to the Minister for Enterprise and the audience!
Why have I submitted this interpellation? During the parliamentary term, I have engaged in the issue and had two interpellation debates with Minister for Climate and Environment Romina Pourmokhtari regarding how it can be that a limestone quarry in Värmland has been forced to close during the parliamentary term because it does not meet the environmental conditions and comply with species protection. Another application in Norrbotten has been rejected, and the ongoing processes on Gotland have not been able to escape any.
What, however, has been able to escape quite many is that Sweden imports large quantities of lime. There are many hundreds of ships that arrive, often from Turkey. It is lime of a special character that is important for the steel industry in northern Sweden and Finland, just as the Minister was mentioning.
However, permission has not been granted for several important deposits on Gotland. The limestone deposit in these areas is designated as a national interest, but in the assessment made by the authorities, species protection is equal to or more important. That is exactly what MSB and also Tillväxtverket have pointed out: If limestone were to be classified as a public interest, greater weight would be given in the assessment.
This, Madam Speaker, is the reason why I submitted the interpellation to Carl-Oskar Bohlin, who quite often highlights precisely the importance of civil preparedness and that we have a preparedness that meets the needs of the business sector. I am nevertheless glad that we have the Minister for Enterprise, as well as the Deputy Prime Minister, here to discuss this important issue.
We can ask ourselves why a public interest is used to a significantly greater extent by other EU countries, which face the same legislation and the same regulatory framework when it comes to species protection, business initiatives, securing infrastructure, energy facilities and other such things, than by Sweden. I mean that even in this case, one should consider highlighting the public interest as a specific part to ensure that all relevant parameters are brought to the table.
Madam Speaker! We are for open and free trade and have nothing against buying lime from Turkey. But it seems strange to me when we have large deposits that can be mined in Sweden and yet we still do not enable this.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! There is much in Isak From's problem picture that I share. I think it is worth delving a little deeper into it now that we finally have a debate in the chamber on this.
One must be aware that northern Gotland has a situation where very much is now covered by nature conservation and progressively increased nature conservation. For example, Stucks, a very important activity from a supply perspective, is in practice almost entirely locked by Natura 2000. A new national park in northern Gotland has been proposed by Naturvårdsverket, and around 80 percent of the area, depending slightly on how one counts, already has some form of nature conservation.
This is something we are following very closely. It is a recurring debate in Sweden but also in the rest of Europe: A very large amount of what was well-intentioned legislation, developed to protect important values, now risks having the effect that we are unable to protect the ultimate value: our independence. Many input goods and parts of our industry are also completely crucial parts in the defense of the country and the continent. I think that perspective is important to highlight. We are following this very closely, as said.
It is also enough to just look at the question of a production interruption in Slite. It would have an immediate impact on the cement supply. We had such an imminent risk just a few years ago, which forced the government at the time – it had my full support to act in that way, but it was very unorthodox – to decree a solution to the situation.
I appreciate this debate and want more and more people to understand the major problem we have with overlapping national interests and national interests that risk becoming a hindrance to what we are ultimately tasked to defend.
With that said, we have placed great emphasis on clearer and faster permit processes. We see that it could at least be an important part of the solution, in addition to a reinforced perspective on preparedness and total defense throughout, across the entire line.
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker! The Government and the government base have spoken very much about the fact that we need to reform the review system. A new review authority has been proposed. We Social Democrats have not fully taken a position. We can see the need, not least from the different assessments that come from the same conditions in different parts of the country. If there are different assessments, it is also not legally secure, and that naturally needs to be taken into account.
But regardless of that: If the regulatory framework is not changed, a new regulatory authority with the same regulatory framework, the same species protection, and the same national interests will face the same conditions. In that case, it may be necessary in some instances, for the sake of the public interest and civil preparedness, that we as a country ensure that we can extract the necessary products that we need, not least those that are important for our steel industry.
It is not widely known, but it is a completely decisive prerequisite for SSAB on both sides of the Gulf of Bothnia to be able to obtain the right quality of limestone. It is also something that both MSB, Tillväxtverket, and SGU have pointed out to the government. Despite the fact that this is a trial currently underway, at the current stage there is nothing, as far as I can see, that would prevent the public interest from being given greater weight when it is deemed necessary.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! Perhaps that is where we are headed. Perhaps we find other solutions in the meantime.
I think it is relevant to further highlight some of our measures. As I mentioned in my interpellation answer at the beginning of the debate, we have therefore decided on a new preparedness sector around industry, construction, and trade. There, Tillväxtverket and SGU, which are two of my agencies, but also Boverket, are the new preparedness agencies. From my perspective, this means that the supply preparedness for industrial minerals now becomes part of a unified national structure.
We also have an important investigation regarding the business sector's preparedness for supply. It has involved a mapping of goods and services that are necessary for the population's survival, society's important functions, and the military defense – including allied forces, regarding Finland and the great value that the limestone on, for example, Gotland has for Finland.
There are several important proposals regarding supply readiness agreements here. I do not delve into the exact setup regarding this, but it includes, among other things, the lime, steel, and cement industries.
I come now to the question of the environmental permit investigation. I would nevertheless like to welcome this from all parties in the Riksdag. This will mean that we will have shorter lead times, reduced complexity, and increased predictability in the assessment. This is precisely what the business community has requested, as well as those parts of the defense that have seen major problems when this has not functioned. It means that operations that are important from a total defense perspective, that is, for our supply readiness, such as limestone quarrying, steel production, and cement production, will be protected in a different way.
In addition to this, we are now working with a new mineral strategy. The acceleration office that we established in the middle of the mandate period also has an important task of moving projects forward. Experiences have also been gathered in detail regarding what is lacking in Swedish administration, where interests conflict and stand in the way of what is ultimately important. We will also carry those experiences forward.
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker! Limestone and enabling limestone quarrying in Sweden is a national issue. It is reasonable to to some extent import certain input materials from sustainable countries, but the extent to which we are now forced to import virtually all the limestone for steel production is unreasonable.
Lime is important for industry, for agriculture and for food production. The security policy situation that we are all aware of indicates that we need to look at these issues in new ways.
During this parliamentary term, Gåsgruvan in Värmland has not been granted an extended permit. BDX's operations in Jokkmokk did not receive a permit. The limestone on Gotland is of very high quality; that is true. But if one does not allow limestone quarries in any other part of the country, it will be very strange. It will also be very difficult for the companies that are interested and who see this as an opportunity and a business idea, important for the entire business sector, to dare to invest and proceed with a permit application when it has been a "no" so far over the last three years.
To include the public interest as an important part of the assessment criteria, especially on Gotland where species protection issues are equal to the issues regarding the national interest, is an opportunity. Then, one naturally also needs to make the necessary local trade-offs.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! I have greatly appreciated this interpellation debate this Friday morning. It shows that many of us are thinking forward about how we in Sweden might be able to take a few more steps in some of our most important tasks.
It is important that I am clear in my concluding remarks that the government's task is to set certain frameworks for how certain trade-offs should be made. We must not end up in a situation where the government will need to intervene in individual assessments, and there is no conflict regarding this. But therefore, the frameworks need to be correct from the start.
We also completely agree that the lime supply – especially the Gotlandic lime – is a strategic key for both Swedish steel, the cement industry, and thus the total defense. I have highlighted some of the government's most important measures for strengthened supply preparedness through a new preparedness sector, proposed supply preparedness agreements, increased consideration of precisely that perspective in public procurement, as well as, not least, reformed environmental assessment and a new environmental assessment authority.
I want to emphasize that it will be looked into further what can be done in the issue of the implementation of EU legislation, also from that perspective – and so the mineral strategy on this. I look forward to discussing the issue further with Isak From going forward.
Thank you for the foam gnome and Merry Christmas!
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.