7.6.8 Scania Membership in the European Union
Description
This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
7.6.8 Scania Membership in the European Union
In October 1995, Sweden voted a slight yes to become a member of the
European Union. In Skåne, the decision was very clear though. It was the
region the most favorable to membership in all of Sweden.
There is hope that Scania being a member of the EU can have positive
implications for reasons of regional strength. There is talk about a Europe
of the regions where the regions are getting more responsibility of
conducting their own affairs and acting independently. The EU will probably
to a certain degree result in the removal of administrative and political
borders to neighbouring regions in other countries surrounding Scania. That
is at least the explicit goal of the EU. In the long term, an abolition of
customs controls and a common currency are discussed. This will especially
benefit border regions.
The EU membership resulted in that Sweden needed to be divided into so
called NUTS regions. These are regions that the EU use for socio- economic
calculations, for example when determining distribution of subsidies from
the EU structural funds. Of three levels 1-3, NUTS 2 is the most important,
often called the "basic region". It's necessary that it has some sort of
political controlling unit, a council or parliament. As a result of these
demands for NUTS regions, Sweden and the EU agreed in 1995 on a division of
NUTS 2 in Sweden into 8 regions. Skåne and Blekinge became one. Halland was
decided to belong to another region. This EU NUTS 2 division has been made a
business separate from the _internal_ regional one described late in 7.6.9
where Skåne _alone_ will constitute one region). Some people are not so
happy with this that the boundaries had to be different, thereby splitting
the regional focus.
The EU subsidizes the Interreg II program that supports border regional
cooperation within the EU. For the Öresund region - that is: Greater
København and all of Skåne - it will cover the years 1995-1999. The sum will
be 13 million ECU for the whole project and 0.2 of these are used for a
specific cooperation between south eastern Skåne and Bornholm. The same
amount that the EU gives must be invested from the two states, thereby
doubling the amount of money available.
Scania is also represented in the EU Committee of Regions in which the
member states' regions have representatives. 2 of the 12 Swedish
representatives are Scanians but that is not the result of any fixed quota
granted to Skåne. The Committee of Regions has no decisional, but only
advisory, powers in the EU. Still, in some EU countries, regional top
politicians are members and have high hopes for the future of the
institution before the EU intergovernmental congress in that started in Mars
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