The LO Congress rejects a referendum on the EU Treaty

The LO believes there is no need for a referendum on the proposed new EU treaty. The main reason, according to the LO Congress, is that Sweden is a parliamentary democracy where important issues are decided on by democratically elected parliamentary representatives. In addition, the LO Board sees no significant differences between the proposed new Treaty and the proposal considered by the referendum on EU membership held in 1994.
The LO Board believes that the argument in favour of a referendum has scant basis as the proposed new treaty contains fewer formal or constitutional elements. The LO Board also stated that it would be difficult to specify any possible alternatives in a referendum.

“No matter how carefully an informative campaign is put together, it is practically impossible to explain the implications of all the hundreds of possible modifications in a way that would allow voters to make their own evaluation of positive and negative factors before voting. The most important point, however, could be that a “no” to the new treaty would in fact mean a “yes” to everything in existing treaties”.

Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) organises 15 unions with a union density of 76 percent of the blue collar workers. Wanja Lundby-Wedin is president of LO and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).