ABSTRACT
The Swedish parliament is perceived as one of the most active and influential chambers within the European Union (EU) when it comes to the parliamentary role in the EU affairs policy post-Lisbon. The Riksdag’s handling of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), which this chapter analyses, confirms such reputation. Using a combination of its traditional role – the policy shaper and the government watchdog in particular – the Riksdag actively pursued its defensive approach towards the Conference and its EU reform agenda. This was done in close alignment with the position of the Swedish cabinet. The ‘active defence’ based on downplaying the CoFoE’s ambitions to reform the EU institutional architecture and revise the treaties reflected the Swedish long-standing intergovernmental approach to further integration. The Riksdag’s conservative strategy within the Conference was also affected by the contextual factors of the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the start of the CoFoE and the Russian aggression towards Ukraine, with its consequences for the EU, at the time of concluding the CoFoE. Last but not least, such a stance was accompanied by the domestic political parties’ sceptical attitude to participatory experiments in general, and a strong backing for the inclusion of national parliaments in these types of consultations.
