The Swedish Government Bill Total Defence 2021-2025 has been translated into English. Here's a summary.
The government bill contains proposals on an overall objective for total defence, new objectives for military and civil defence, the direction of the force structure of the Swedish Armed Forces, changes to the Swedish Armed Forces peacetime organisation, as well as legislative amendments as a result of the Swedish Defence Recruitment Agency’s name change.
Furthermore, the government bill contains the Government’s assessment of both security policy development and the long-term direction of defence and security policy, including for Sweden’s international defence partnerships.
In order to strengthen and further intensify the reconstruction of civil defence, the Government’s focus is a gradual strengthening that includes EUR 0.1 billion in 2021, EUR 0.15 billion in 2022, EUR 0.25 billion in 2023, EUR 0.3 billion in 2024 and EUR 0.38 billion in 2025. Together with the funds allocated in the Budget Bill for 2018, total civil defence funds will amount to EUR 0.42 billion in 2025.
When it comes to civil defence the Bill presents several proposals that would provide society with an increased capability and resilience to manage an armed attack or war on Swedish territory. The proposals will also strengthen crisis preparedness efforts in peacetime.
The investments and efforts that Sweden now are making in civil defence aim to strengthen resilience in several important societal functions:
Another part of the work of safeguarding the most important societal functions is strengthening information and cyber security and reducing vulnerabilities. An important part of this is establishing a cyber security centre. The Government considers that a cyber security centre will have a concrete impact on Sweden’s ability to prevent and handle antagonistic threats.
