Response to interpellation 2025/26:237 on more reserve officers
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M argues that reserve officers fulfill an important function and that the need for war-stationed reserve officers is increasing 1. M emphasizes that recruitment is going well and that there is room for more, but that too few are applying for the training 2. M welcomes more technical reserve officers 3 and views the investigation on personnel supply positively 3. M wants to continue working with the investigation to secure faster capability growth 3. M argues that it is crucial that equipment, infrastructure, and personnel grow in step 4 and will return with a proposition based on the investigation 4. S argues that reserve officers are a central part of the defense 5. S wants a statutory right to leave of absence, better compensation, and higher merit value 6. S believes it is important to take measures that create good conditions for the personnel 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Försvarsministern Pål Jonson (M)
Madam Speaker! Erik Ezelius has asked me what measures I and the government are prepared to take to train more reserve officers. Erik Ezelius has also asked me what measures I and the government are prepared to take to provide reserve officers with better conditions to be able to serve.
Reserve officers fulfill an important function in the Armed Forces. The Armed Forces has stated in the budget basis for 2026 that the total need for reserve officers during the period 2025–2035 amounts to 5,800.
The need for war-stationed reserve officers is increasing in line with the capability growth decided for the war organization. The Armed Forces assess in its budget basis for 2026 that the war organization's increased need is primarily met through the war-stationing of existing reserve officers. The Armed Forces decided in June 2025 to additionally increase training volumes during the defense decision period 2025–2030.
The Government decided on 4 January 2024 to task a special investigator with analyzing and proposing how the availability of, among other things, reserve officers can be improved in order to strengthen the military defense's resilience. The assignment included, among other things, analyzing whether there is a need to introduce an explicit right to leave of absence from civil employment for reserve officers as well as an obligation to serve. In July 2025, the Government received the investigation's report Ready! An investigation into the personnel supply of the military defense (SOU 2025:86). The report has been referred. The investigation's proposals and the referral bodies' views are now being analyzed in the Government Offices.
Erik Ezelius (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister of Defence for the answer on an important issue. In the turbulent global developments we have lived in since 2014, enormous resources are being invested in upgrading our total defense. The duty is reactivated, and many billions are being spent on procurement of materiel, infrastructure, regiments, training areas, etc. But what is the Armed Forces without people of flesh and blood? In order to be able to build up a war organization that both has a deterrent purpose and is a political means and option for action to achieve set goals, the Armed Forces needs its personnel.
Yesterday, the volumes of conscription were debated. An important component that was mentioned then and which we will debate today is reserve officers. The reserve officer is an officer who has their primary civilian work outside the Armed Forces but serves part-time in it. It is a temporary employment with a lower work time measure than for professional officers, usually five to six weeks per year in the war organization and monthly or annually in the basic organization. Reserve officers constitute approximately one-third of the planned officer corps and are a central part of the defense where the majority of the personnel in the war organization have their primary income from civilian jobs, such as reserve officers, temporarily employed soldiers, conscripts, and home guard personnel.
The need for reserve officers is increasing both within Nato at large and within the Armed Forces, where utilization is already on the rise today. An important strength is that reserve officers can be activated without political decisions, which provides freedom of action in crisis and war situations. The system is cost-effective and strengthens public support and the will to defend, and it is becoming increasingly important in a more uncertain global situation. To meet future needs, the Armed Forces must ensure a good supply of reserve officers over time, strengthen the profession's attractiveness even on the civilian labor market, and remove obstacles to service.
As the Minister mentioned, the Armed Forces assess that approximately 5,800 reserve officers are needed for the period 2025–2035. At the same time, statistics from 2024 from the Association of Reserve Officers show that there are around 7,100 employed on paper. The authority assesses, however, that approximately half are usable. The median age is high, 55.4 years, and only 18 percent are younger than 45 years. Just over 3,300 reserve officers reach retirement age before 2034. During 2024, approximately 2,200 people served, of whom about 1,600 were in their war positions and about 800 in the basic organization. Despite a record number of reserve officers being commissioned in 2025, the number was only 74, compared to the target of 90.
That the Armed Forces during the 2000s trained relatively few professional and reserve officers means that there is currently an uneven age and competence structure. Today, as stated, 82 percent of the reserve officers are older than 45 years, and a large proportion of the employed reserve officers have not been in service for many years.
The willingness to serve is, however, high. A majority want to serve more than today, and among those who have not served in the last two years, almost nine out of ten want to do so. Most, however, desire a limited withdrawal per year.
At the same time, there are major structural problems. 70 percent lack a service plan, almost half lack a position, and only 20 percent have confidence in the Armed Forces' way of handling reserve officers. Common obstacles are loss of income, difficulties in getting time off from civilian work or studies, and administrative and organizational problems – such as the 3:8 rule, which is among others raised in the investigation – lack of planning, bureaucracy, and cancelled service.
Does the Minister share, in broad strokes, the picture I am painting?
Försvarsministern Pål Jonson (M)
Madam Speaker! Erik Ezelius knows better than most in this chamber what it means to serve the country in uniform, and I know that he himself has been an officer. I also appreciate that he is willing to share his insights. It is inevitable that the personnel are the core of the defense, and they will need to grow.
In an international comparison, Sweden generally has a strong personnel supply system, partly due to the conscription, which forms the basis for not least the ground forces. Recruitment is also going well when it comes to officers and specialist officers, and we now have a volume of 310 reserve officers. Previously, we have had problems with many having taken a training spot but not completed the training. This year, an over-enrollment was made to avoid empty spots. It is therefore moving in the right direction. Regarding specialist officers, the development has been even better, and I believe there are now around 550 people who are specialist officers.
When it comes to reserve officers, which is the main focus of this debate, it is correct as Erik Ezelius says that it has increased rapidly proportionally but that the volumes are still quite small. The problem is the recruitment. There is an opportunity to train more than what is being done today, but unfortunately, there are a bit too few who apply. I believe it was 385 who applied, 85 who were admitted and 79 who passed the final examination during the last year. This constitutes a problem.
So, there is no opposition to bringing in more people, and there is infrastructure and conditions for that. But as said, there are a bit too few who apply. For the specialist officer training, only three people applied. So, there is room for more.
There are reasons for the Armed Forces to do a larger job, and the mapping is therefore central. It has been identified that approximately 5,800 are needed for the war organization's needs and development. Today there are approximately 7,000, but just as Erik Ezelius said, many of them have not served yet. 82 percent are 45 years old or older.
When it comes to the reserve officers, the Armed Forces therefore have a job to do to identify that the right person ends up in the right place. We will, of course, continue to follow this issue closely. My department also has contact with Förbundet Reservofficerarna to get their perspective.
What creates better conditions for recruitment is the expanded conscription, which affects more and more people. The Armed Forces are now above the volume in the defense decision, which we took in December 2024, for practically all personnel categories. Recruitment is therefore going well. We were supposed to be at approximately 8,000 conscripts this year, and we are at 8,200. The other categories are also going well.
The more conscripts we get, the better the conditions will be for people to make the choice to study to become reserve officers. It is a category that, like many other categories within the Armed Forces, needs to grow.
Erik Ezelius (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer!
The Armed Forces can itself take several measures to increase the availability of and the use of reserve officers, including through systematic skills inventory, which is now also taking place, and skills development, as well as considering making war placement possible within the entire total defense, a significant increase in training places, and a reintroduction of shared reserve officer training, which is more compatible with civilian studies. Furthermore, budgeted and conducted exercises, full-time employed reserve officer officers, and reduced administrative barriers are required.
When it comes to shared officer training, my personal opinion is that it is a successful path to take, that is to say that one studies a regular education and simultaneously trains as a reserve officer during the summers, with certain benefits.
An exciting example that I read about in the newspaper Reservofficeren is the collaboration between Chalmers, LTU and Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, where one shall be able to study to become a technical officer in parallel, where there is a shortage. This is to take place this year, and it will be exciting to see what the outcome will be and if this can be opened up in parallel with other educations as well.
The civil side also plays a crucial role. A clear statutory right to leave from civil employers and educational institutions is needed, which is proposed in SOU 2025:86. One also needs to look further into the issue of loss of income and potential models for wage compensation. Service as a reserve officer should also be given a higher merit value in civil working life.
In the government investigation Redo! An investigation on the staffing of the military defense, SOU 2025:86, led by Major General Roland Ekenberg, several changes are proposed to improve the availability of and the utilization of personnel within the Armed Forces. It also concerns reserve officers and the low-hanging fruit of the statutory right to leave of absence.
The investigation proposes that reserve officers shall have an explicit legal right to leave of absence from their civilian employers when they are to perform military service, which shall create security for both the employees and their employers. It is also proposed that the Council for Higher Education shall change its regulations so that reserve officer training and service can be grounds for a leave of absence from studies or a deferral of the start of studies. This is also very important.
The investigation also points to an extended age limit for officers. It is proposed that persons who have been professional officers or reserve officers should be able to be called up for military service until the year they turn 70, instead of today's limit which is 47, in order to better utilize experience and competence in the event of need.
The investigation also speaks of removing the time limit for war placement in the reserve. For conscripts, it is proposed that war placement in the reserve should not be time-limited, meaning it should not expire after, for example, ten years but apply until the age of 47, regardless of whether the individual has served or not, which means that more people can be available for a longer period. Even though this does not directly apply to reserve officers, the reasoning is about keeping more equipped for service for longer. It is very important.
The investigation also speaks of improved conditions and incentives, including higher daily compensation for conscripts – a perspective that also affects the attractiveness for those who serve part-time in the defense.
I want to ask the minister if he can say today whether he feels anything is missing in the investigation – not with regard to the investigator, who has done a solid job, but because it is missing in the directives or because new issues have arisen that need further analysis.
Försvarsministern Pål Jonson (M)
Madam Speaker! We really need more technical officers within the Armed Forces. There is a stated shortage there, which we have also identified in the defense industry strategy. There, we urge the Armed Forces to review the conditions for producing more technical officers. If we can produce more reserve officers with that orientation, I am the first to welcome it. One measure that has been taken is that one can now apply to the reserve officer training twice a year instead of once a year. I hope that this can increase the opportunity for more to apply to the training.
Roland Ekenberg's investigation concerns achieving increased availability of personnel across the breadth of the Armed Forces. Just as Erik Ezelius pointed out, it is a number of categories that are affected by this. It concerns conscripts and how they can be used in different readiness states. It also concerns continuously employed soldiers and occasionally employed soldiers, not least reserve officers, and their statutory right to leave when they serve within the Armed Forces.
The Government will return to the Riksdag with a consolidated response to Roland Ekenberg's investigation. We have been able to review the referral responses, but I can and may not anticipate that work. With that said, Madam Speaker, I intend to touch upon the importance of codifying the reserve officers' right. It could be regulated in different employment contracts. The Armed Forces are clear that they do not consider it a reasonable basis. I view Roland Ekenberg's investigation as very positive in all respects, and we are working in its spirit.
Just as Erik Ezelius pointed out, it is about the compensation levels for those performing military service. There, we took a first step in the autumn budget where we included parts of Roland Ekenberg's investigation insofar as we increased the daily allowance for those performing military service. We have also increased the compensation for officer candidates.
Since then, Ekenberg's investigation has a more extensive proposal that I find interesting, but we could not anticipate that in the budget. The investigation must be referred, and we received all the referral responses on November 14. We have, however, taken a step. It is largely about recognition, both for conscripts and for officer candidates. One should receive reasonable compensation when performing important measures and efforts for Sweden's security.
We will continue to work with Roland Ekenberg's investigation, and the government's ambition is to present a proposition during the spring in order to be able to quickly secure faster capacity growth when it comes to available personnel for the Armed Forces.
Erik Ezelius (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister for Defence, for the answer! I would also like to thank the Minister for Defence for this debate and the conversation. I believe that we are in broad strokes in agreement on these issues.
The purpose of debating this is to address problems that we need to resolve. Even though we in this chamber may disagree on many issues, it is a strength that there is an urgent matter to reach an agreement on in questions such as these.
Fundamentally, it is about creating the conditions to increase our defense capability. Again: It doesn't matter how many combat vehicles, combat boats, automatic rifles, etc. we have if we do not have men and women who are prepared to defend ourselves and our allies if the worst were to happen. Therefore, it is extremely important to continue to discuss, analyze, and take measures that create good conditions for our personnel.
I look forward with pleasure to when the bill is completed and laid before the Riksdag for consideration. Once again: Thank you very much for the debate!
Försvarsministern Pål Jonson (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Erik Ezelius, for the debate!
It is an obvious strength when we can find broad agreements. It is good for Sweden, but it is also good for the Armed Forces that one obtains long-term rules of the game. The Defence Preparation has, in that regard, been completely central.
Much of what formed the basis for Roland Ekenberg's investigation could also be found in the Defence Preparation's reports, which concern the importance of increased availability of personnel, given the serious security policy situation in the world. It is about creating the best possible conditions to achieve rapid growth. This is based on both materiel, infrastructure, and personnel growing in sync, and it ensures that we can quickly develop strong combat units. It is, therefore, absolutely crucial.
The mapping that the Armed Forces is now to conduct regarding reserve officers shall see how one matches 7,100 reserve officers with an identified need of 8,500 reserve officers, but also take into account that we have large retirements ahead of us among the reserve officers. Most reserve officers are in Erik Ezelius's and even my age rather than younger.
The government will continue to work intensively on this issue. We will also return with the bill that Erik Ezelius requests, based on Roland Ekenberg's investigation.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.