Friday, July 11, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Swedish Supreme Court: Legal databases cannot share verdicts with customers

Published 27 February 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Legal databases such as Ratsit, MrKoll and Lexbase will also be affected by the Supreme Court's decision.
2 minute read

The Swedish Supreme Court has ruled that the news agency Nyhetsbyrån Siren may not disclose court documents to paying customers in its databases. The decision means that the EU’s data protection regulation outweighs the Swedish principle of public access to official documents and may also affect other legal databases such as Lexbase.

In 2024, a number of courts refused to disclose public documents to, among others, Nyhetsbyrån Siren and various legal databases, citing the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The news agency uses these documents for journalistic purposes, but also in its Acta Publica and Be Informed databases, where it is possible to see who has been convicted of various crimes.

At the end of last year, the Upper Norrland Court of Appeal ruled, among other things, that Siren was not entitled to keep a complete register of convictions, and that the social security numbers, names and addresses of individuals could not reach the public via their paying customers. Siren was only allowed to use this information for “journalistic purposes”.

The Supreme Court has now ruled that the Court of Appeal’s decision was correct and that documents cannot be shared with paying customers in a database.

In Sweden, public documents such as court decisions are subject to the principle of public access to official documents, which means that everyone has the right to access public documents. Since Siren and other databases have a publishing license, Swedish law also allows them to store this information and, in practice, to publish it to paying customers. However, under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, personal data may not be stored without the person’s consent. The Supreme Court’s decision involves a reinterpretation of what should carry more weight, the Swedish Constitution or the EU Data Protection Regulation. In this case, it has sided with the EU.

Major impact

– The Supreme Court thus makes the assessment that the system that the legislator wanted to achieve cannot be reconciled with the EU Data Protection Regulation. The Court has therefore interpreted the Swedish regulations so that it is possible to take the GDPR into account when applying the Freedom of Information and Secrecy Act. Legislative measures are needed to achieve a more comprehensive balance between freedom of expression and information and data protection, said Petter Asp, one of the justices who participated in the ruling, in a press release.

The decision is also likely to affect other legal databases such as Ratsit, MrKoll and Lexbase, which currently allow paying customers to search for court decisions.

There may not be access to these databases in the same way in the future, Asp told the tax-funded SVT.

In a study last year, the government’s investigator, Daniel Gustavsson, proposed that constitutional protection should be limited for search services that publish personal data. Such a change in the law would mean a change in the Swedish constitution.

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Sweden’s Christian Democrats call for tax relief for families with children

Published yesterday 7:08
– By Editorial Staff
1 minute read

Swedish families with children should receive tax relief, according to the same model as Hungary. This is proposed by Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch.

The catastrophically low birth rate has recently become a topic of discussion even among Swedish politicians. Childbirth in Sweden is at historically low levels. During 2023, an average of 1.43 children were born per woman – the lowest figure ever recorded. The standing solution advocated among Swedish politicians has been to bring foreigners to Sweden to replace the population.

The leader of the Christian Democrats Ebba Busch proposes on this theme to follow the Hungarian model, where families with children receive significant tax relief that increases for each child. The principle is to make it easier for one or later both parents to support themselves through work instead of benefits.

If current birth rate trends continue in Sweden, each new generation will be approximately 30 percent smaller than the previous one, which means major consequences including for the labor market and welfare system when fewer people of working age must support a growing elderly population.

 

Almost total halt for imported berry pickers in Sweden

Published 8 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
2 minute read

The Swedish Migration Agency has rejected almost all applications for berry pickers for 2025. As recently as 2023, 5,000 permits were granted.

Citing years of indications that employment conditions in the berry industry are not being upheld, the Migration Agency has granted only 89 permits for berry picking this year. A total of 2,397 applications for berry pickers have been received for 2025.

Last year, the Migration Agency rejected all applications for berry pickers, but 1,272 applications were subsequently approved after court review.

The Migration Agency has also this year assessed that workers in the berry industry risk not having their employment conditions met. Therefore, the agency has decided to reject most of the applications for Thai berry pickers, says Hanna Geurtsen, Deputy Project Manager for Work Permits at the Migration Agency, in a press release.

This year, the Migration Agency explains, all employers active in berry picking have chosen to apply for permits via the EU’s Seasonal Workers Directive. The difference when applying for a work permit as a seasonal worker, compared with the national main track for work permits, is among other things that the berry pickers this year are directly employed by a company in Sweden and not via a foreign staffing agency.

It’s partly about having an employment contract signed by both parties and that the employment conditions must be in line with Swedish collective agreements. For the majority of the applications received this year, these requirements have not been met, says Hanna Geurtsen.

The berry companies that have been rejected have the possibility to appeal these decisions in court, the agency adds in its press release.

Number of berry picking permits granted by the Migration Agency in recent years:

2025: 89
2024: 0 (1,272 were approved after court review)
2023: 5,372
2022: 6,594
2021: 5,175

Swedish government to map immigrants’ opinions

Published 7 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The Liberals' new integration minister Simona Mohamsson on the left, on the right migrants who have landed in Europe (archive image).
1 minute read

The Swedish government is now launching a project to examine immigrants’ opinions compared to native Swedes.

The results will serve as guidance for future integration efforts, says the Liberal Party’s new integration minister Simona Mohamsson about the project.

World Values Survey, WVS, is an international research program that examines people’s values in everything from social, political, economic, religious and cultural aspects.

The Swedish government is now paying WVS €450,000 to examine how values differ between non-Western immigrants and those with entirely Swedish backgrounds. During the autumn, around 3,000 people will be interviewed.

“We are an extreme country”

According to surveys that World Values Survey has previously conducted, the differences between immigrants and native Swedes are very large regarding views on things like divorce, premarital sex, abortion and homosexuality, where Sweden overall stands out as an exceptionally liberal-oriented country.

We are an extreme country in a good way. For people who become part of our society, it becomes somewhat difficult to navigate that map, says Mohamsson about the project to the Bonnier-owned newspaper DN, which among other things highlights that immigrants are more skeptical toward homosexual relationships.

There’s a whole generation of girls who don’t get to choose who they want to love or boys who can’t come out of the closet, she says.

Fewer shootings in Sweden — but bomb attacks have doubled

organized crime

Published 3 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
According to Swedish police, the purpose of the bomb attacks is often to extort, intimidate, or threaten the victims.
2 minute read

The number of shootings in Sweden has almost halved compared to last year – but at the same time, bombings have increased dramatically. According to new statistics from the Swedish Police Authority, over 100 bombing incidents have occurred so far this year, representing a doubling compared to the same period in 2024.

During the first six months of this year, police have recorded 84 shootings. This marks a significant decrease compared to the first half of 2022, when 205 shootings occurred, resulting in 34 deaths and 49 injuries. The number of people injured in shooting incidents has also gradually decreased since then. However, the 2025 statistics include the school attack in Örebro, central Sweden, where ten people lost their lives.

This development comes against the backdrop of Sweden’s long-standing struggles with organized crime, where violent gangs, often with immigrant backgrounds, have spread fear in both major cities and smaller towns. For several years, authorities have struggled to effectively address the escalating violence – but according to police, certain measures are now showing results.

– In both physical and digital environments, as well as in investigations, we are now faster and more efficient, which has enabled us to prevent impending crimes and increase the clearance rate of deadly gang-related violence from about 20-30 percent to about 60 percent in recent years. This partly explains why we’re seeing fewer shootings, says August Knutsson, operational coordinator at the Swedish Police’s National Operations Center.

More bombings during winter months

While shootings have decreased, another form of violence has increased significantly. So far this year, 104 explosions have occurred – double the number compared to the same period in 2024, when 52 bomb attacks were recorded.

– This is obviously serious, and we’ve noticed that criminal groups have shifted their methods and carried out more bombings during winter and spring. Often for extortion purposes, to intimidate or threaten. However, since the beginning of the year, when we saw a sharp increase in completed bombings, they have decreased. We’re arresting more perpetrators during the preparation stage than before, explains Knutsson.

He emphasizes that the situation is still considered very serious and that gang violence could soon escalate again:

– At the same time, the conflict level remains high, and we know from experience that the situation can change rapidly. We’re doing everything we can to keep violence levels down.

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