Negotiations that have been ongoing during the spring are now completed and on Thursday, a finished agreement will be presented. It is about a total of an additional 300 billion kronor in investments in military and civil defense.
Through this agreement, Sweden reaches, according to Swedish politicians, the requirements for EU countries to spend at least 3.5 percent of GDP on their military defense and 1.5 percent of GDP on civil defense - requirements that NATO is expected to make a decision on at the summit in The Hague next week.
According to the agreement, an upgrading of the military defense for 250 billion kronor in the coming years will be financed by loans. The money will, among other things, go to the purchase of more air defense, ammunition, and expanded ground forces. The remaining 50 billion kronor will also be loan-financed and allocated to civil defense, such as certain healthcare, infrastructure, and an expanded emergency stockpile of food, medicine, and fuel.
The parties, however, disagree on how the cost of the loans will be financed. According to The Moderate Party and The Liberals, it should be done through growth, while the Social Democrats demand an emergency tax. The agreement is made in addition to the defense decision that the parliament made last autumn.
