Earlier this week, King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel met with government officials to talk about Brexit.
In a digital meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister, Anna Hallberg, and European Union Minister, Hans Dahlgren, the royals discussed Sweden’s relationship with the United Kingdom after it left the European Union last year.
The Royal House notes that Hallberg and Dahlgren spoke about how Brexit is affecting EU cooperation and how Sweden is responding to the agreements forged from the exit. Also discussed were the ways Sweden’s and the European Union’s trades were being affected by Brexit, both short- and long-term, as well as how trade with the United States and China will change because of Brexit.
In a press conference when Brexit was finalised and the trade deals hammered out, Hallberg said that “This agreement is welcome. In practice, there were three possibilities. No agreement, a bad agreement and a good agreement. What we have is a good agreement.”
Dahlgren added, “This agreement provides the conditions for long-term and predictable cooperation and for good relations between the EU and the UK in the future.”
Several changes affecting Sweden and the United Kingdom went into effect at the start of the year. From now on, travellers from Sweden can stay in the UK for six months without needing a visa. As well, Swedish people who were living the UK prior to Brexit taking effect will need a new residence permit, the Settled/Pre-Settled Permit, which allows EU citizens who settled in the UK until 31 December 2020 to apply to stay.
If Swedish people want to move to the UK following Brexit, they will be subject to a points-based immigration system, the same system that others who wish to emigrate follow.
Last year, before Brexit took effect, the Swedish government noted on its website that, “The United Kingdom is an important partner for Sweden on many levels, not least in terms of trade relations between the two countries but also in other contexts. In the long run, it is therefore important for the government to create good agreements with the British.”
