Crown Princess Victoria and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden were at the Royal Palace in Stockholm to attend the Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on 3 February.
The Royal Court released two photographs from the meeting. In one picture, the King and Crown Princess are seen welcoming attendees to this meeting. In the second photograph, the entire committee is gathered under the leadership of His Majesty.
According to the Royal Court, “The Foreign Affairs Committee meeting is a consultative organ between the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, and the Swedish government, of which the King is chairman. The committee consists of the Speaker of the parliament and nine other members from the Swedish parliament, as well as nine other deputies. The Foreign Affairs Committee meets at the invitation of the government.”
Sweden’s constitution declares that “the government shall continuously keep the Foreign Affairs Committee informed of the foreign policy conditions that may be important to the state and discuss these with the committee as often as necessary.”
It is also the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, together with the Prime Minister, who decide that the war delegation shall replace the parliament if there is a danger of war. A decision requires the Prime Minister and six of the committee’s members to vote in favour.
If the Foreign Affairs Committee can not gather due to war, the government will make the decision on the war delegation. This is different from Denmark and Norway, where the monarch declares war.
