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Refugee talks planned between UK and Sweden

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
Refugee talks planned between UK and Sweden
David Cameron (left) Markku Ulander

Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has announced he will travel to London next week to hold talks on the refugee crisis with his British counterpart David Cameron.

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Löfven's office released a press statement on Tuesday revealing that the Swedish premier would arrive in the UK on Monday to discuss "the refugee situation in Europe, other EU questions and the upcoming climate conference in Paris".
 
The bilateral talks are not the first between the Social Democrat prime minister and his British counterpart since Löfven was elected a year ago, but are expected to be among the most high-profile so far.
 
Sweden is currently campaigning for other EU member states – including the UK – to take in a greater share of refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East and Africa.
 
Up to 190,000 people are expected to seek asylum in the Nordic nation in 2015 and while Löfven has widely praised his country's response to the crisis he has said that Sweden is "approaching the limit" of its reception capacity.
 
 
As well as the refugee crisis, the pair are expected to touch on the upcoming British referendum on EU membership. Sweden is strongly opposed to a potential Brexit.
 
Margot Wallström, Sweden's Foreign Minister, told The Local in May that Britain was "very important to the EU" and said she would be personally sad if it left the European Union.
 
"To Sweden it has been a partner nation on very many issues – everything from free trade to social issues and other things – so we would of course miss them, and it would be, I think, a very serious blow to the entire EU if they were to leave," she said.
 
Last month the UK's Finance Minister George Osborne visited Stockholm as part of his efforts to drum up support for the idea that Britain should be allowed to renegotiate its relationship with the other 27 member states, before UK voters are given the chance to decide whether to remain 'in or out' of the European Union.
 
Climate change will also be a key topic for Löfven and Cameron during their talks in London ahead of the UN climate change conference in Paris, which gets under way on November 30th and will be attended by both the British and Swedish leaders.
 
The goal of the gathering is to reach a new international agreement, applicable to all countries, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2C.
 
 

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