We have a more apparent threat picture, but it is also broader, Bildt said at a press conference on Friday, where the investigation was handed over to Defense Minister Pål Jonson (M).
Today, the intelligence work in Sweden is carried out by the Security Police and the military intelligence service Must, which provides the military defense and the government with intelligence. But this does not work well enough anymore, according to Bildt, who among other things points out Must's incorrect assessments during the lead-up to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In the investigation, he now proposes that a new civilian intelligence agency should be established and become "a national resource directly under the government".
When asked if the agency can be compared to the American CIA, Bildt replies "no" and means that it is rather a version of the British "Joint Intelligence Organisation".
An independent agency that is to some extent collecting but above all analyzing, he says.
Security Police's Charlotte von Essen is positive about what the investigation has come up with.
"From the Security Police, we welcome especially that the investigator shares our assessment of the need for a pure security service law in Sweden, similar to how it looks in several European countries," she says in a press release.
The proposal is part of an investigation where an overview has been made of Swedish intelligence activities against the background of the deteriorated international and security situation, which was appointed by the government in the fall of 2023.
The last similar review was made in the 1990s.
