This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Swedish finance ministry is looking into what the consequences would be if Sweden were to cut its development aid budget by 60%.

The ministry is considering redirecting the money, so that it can instead be spent on the many asylum seekers arriving in the country due to the refugee crisis.

Sweden currently spends a higher percentage of overall gross national income on development aid than any other country in the world. For 2015, the budget is €4.25bn (£3.03bn), rising to €4.6bn in 2016. This year, 20% of the budget will be spent on costs for refugees. Between 2012-14, 10% of Sweden’s development aid contribution was earmarked for incoming refugees.

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However, since the Swedish Migration Agency predicted this month that the current refugee crisis is likely to cost Sweden €6.4bn next year, the Scandinavian country’s centre-left government is considering spending the majority of the development aid budget on asylum seekers.

This year, Sweden expects to receive up to 190,000 asylum seekers. In 2016, the country expects 100,000-170,000 asylum seekers, making Sweden – which has a population of just 9.5 million people – the EU member that accepts the most refugees per capita.

According to a letter sent from the Swedish foreign ministry to the finance ministry and obtained by a Swedish radio station, Margot Wallström, the foreign minister, has warned that a 60% development aid budget cut will have “a deep impact” and “completely change the Swedes’ self-image”.



The foreign ministry writes that Sweden’s reputation would be seriously damaged, and that Sweden would also have to give up its candidacy for a seat on the UN security council, as the country’s high development aid contribution is seen as its most important trump card.

“Our whole international credibility is at stake,” the letter allegedly states.

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has already calculated that halving the development budget for schools would result in 50,000 girls and boys not going to school. An estimated 8,000 schools would be without teaching materials.

Halving support for water and sanitary issues could result in 4.5 million people lacking access to clean water, while 4 million fewer than previously hoped would get access to improved sanitation.

Should Sweden decide to slash its development aid budget this year, it is likely to become the third Nordic country to do so.

In June, the new centre-right Finnish government announced it had decided to reduce the budget for development cooperation by 43%. In short space, the new centre-right Danish government said its GNI directed to official development assistance would be lowered from 0.87% to 0.7%.

The EU has agreed a plan, resisted by Hungary and several other members, to admit 120,000 refugees across member states, a small proportion of the 700,000 refugees the International Organisation for Migration estimates have reached Europe’s borders from the Middle East, Africa and Asia this year.

The EU is also courting Turkey with the promise of money, visa-free travel, and new accession talks if Ankara tries to stem the flow of refugees across its territory.