Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

Swedish bank jitters as Greece crisis swells

People travelling from Sweden to Greece are being warned to withdraw cash before setting off, while the Swedish Prime Minister has criticized the Greek parliament’s snap referendum on a possible Grexit.

Published: 29 June 2015 13:32 CEST
Updated: 29 June 2015 20:06 CEST
Swedish bank jitters as Greece crisis swells
A woman outside a closed bank in Greece. Photo: AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis

Swedish banks are warning holidaymakers heading to Greece to take out money before they travel, following news that all Greek banks are set to be closed for the rest of the week, with cash machine withdrawals limited to €60 a day (equivalent to 550 kronor).

The move should not – in theory – affect foreigners seeking to take money out of international accounts, but Scandinavian banks including SEB and Nordea have advised their customers to plan ahead and exchange their Swedish kronor for euros in advance.

Currency exchange firm Forex told the TT news agency on Monday that it had already seen a sharp rise in the number of Swedes getting euro ahead of of their journeys at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport. Cash machine firm ATB, which allows users to withdraw euros at some of its terminals in Sweden said it also had seen an increase in people opting for the single currency.

“Thanks to extensive news coverage it seems most people know that it's smart to bring a hefty sum of cash,” said Tom Friberg, head of communications at Forex.

He noted that many Swedes may not be used to carrying money around due to the Scandinavian nation’s increasingly cashless society.

“We are spoiled in the Nordic region to be able to use our cards whenever we shop at home. Most people are beginning to learn that this isn’t the case everywhere,” he added.

Read more about the Greece crisis on our sister site The Local Germany

The advice from Swedish banks comes a day after the Swedish foreign ministry warned people flying to Greece that “some restaurants and filling stations haven't accepted card payments for some time and are taking just cash”.

This is because businesses may not want to accept credit cards as they could have trouble accessing their own bank accounts, even if card transactions are authorized.

Meanwhile Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has criticized the Greek parliament’s decision to hold a snap referendum on whether or not the southern European country should remain part of the Eurozone.

“What happened the other day when Greece suddenly said that they wanted a referendum at the eleventh hour, and also believe that the people ought to vote 'no' — that kind of action does not impress me,” he told Swedish Radio.

The Prime Minister was speaking at Sweden's Almedalen Week on Gotland. The political festival was supposed to have been attended by European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis ('Commissioner for the euro and social cohesion'), who had to cancel at last minute, presumably to deal with the Greece crisis.

For members

CLIMATE

FACT CHECK: Has the EU really banned Swedes from lighting bonfires?

Claims that a new EU law had outlawed lighting fires in private gardens have hit the headlines recently, with outraged Swedes accusing Brussels of banning Sweden's traditional spring fires. But how true are they?

Published: 19 April 2024 10:39 CEST
FACT CHECK: Has the EU really banned Swedes from lighting bonfires?

What’s happened?

On April 6th, TV4 Nyheter published a story claiming that burning twigs and leaves in private gardens has been illegal since the beginning of the year, due to new EU rules.

“A common habit for gardeners during their spring cleaning is now banned. An EU law which came into force at the beginning of the year demands that all food and garden waste are sorted separately,” the article states, quoting Milla Sundström, an administrator from the waste and chemicals unit of the Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) as saying this “indirectly” bans spring fires.

Sundström added that the ban is enforced by local councils, so rules may differ.

Wait… why is it so important for Swedes to burn twigs in their gardens?

It’s a common way of getting rid of the leaves and branches that have accumulated over the last year, with the ashes often used as fertiliser in the garden. It’s usually only allowed for a couple of weeks a year in spring and again in the autumn, and during Valborg at the end of April, when it’s traditional to light a spring bonfire.

Quite a lot of people in Sweden live in pretty remote areas, so it’s much easier for them to get rid of bulky garden waste by burning it rather than having to drive it off to the nearest recycling centre.

So has burning garden waste been banned by the EU?

Technically, no.

The EU law says that member states should “encourage the recycling, including composting and digestion, of bio-waste”, as well as encourage home composting and promoting the use of materials produced by bio-waste, but it doesn’t say anything about banning fires.

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Center Party MEP Emma Wiesner wrote on X, before blaming the government for interpreting the law incorrectly.

“Banning tidying up in your own garden has clearly NOT been the EU’s intention. The inability of the government and authorities to implement the simplest of directives is embarrassing and adds to the contempt for politicians,” she added.

So who has banned fires on private property?

In a regulation from December 22nd, 2022 signed by Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari, the government writes that exemptions “from the prohibition on the incineration of separately collected waste” may be granted in the case of public events. 

This refers to a separate law governing waste, which states that “waste that has been collected separately to be prepared for reuse or recycling should not be incinerated”.

This regulation came into effect on January 1st, 2024.

Wait… what does that even mean?

Admittedly, the regulation isn’t particularly clear. Having said that, the new rules on bonfires appear to stem from Naturvårdsverket interpreting this regulation as an outright ban.

“The new regulations mean that garden waste must be composted on-site, left at a recycling centre, or collected by the council,” it writes in a post on its website dated April 11th. “In practice, this means that it is no longer permitted to burn branches, leaves and other garden waste”.

Naturvårdsverket claims that this is “part of the introduction of the EU’s waste directive, which means that bio-waste should primarily be recycled”.

It does, however, add that local councils are able to grant exceptions, “for example if it’s a long way to the closest recycling centre”.

So whose fault is it?

Energy and business minister Ebba Busch, who is head of the climate and business ministry, seemed to indicate in a post on X that the confusion was due to the badly-worded rules introduced by the government at the beginning of the year, which were designed to coincide with the EU’s waste directive.

“I want to be clear and say that the government has not introduced a new ban against burning garden waste,” she wrote, alongside a picture of her standing in front of a fire in her own garden.

“There are new rules, but not any huge changes compared to how it’s worked in the past. We can see that these can be interpreted in different ways. For that reason, the rules will be clarified,” she added.

Can I burn twigs in my garden then?

Maybe.

Despite politicians sharing posts telling you to “Keep calm and keep lighting fires,” you should check with your municipality before you do so.

Some, like Halmstad, have interpreted the new regulations as meaning that you can still light a fire in your own garden, while others require you to apply for an exemption (which usually includes paying a fee), whether you’re applying for a May bonfire or just want to burn some leaves in your own garden.

Others, like Värmdö municipality, allow you to burn things like twigs and small branches in your garden, while stating that grass and leaves should be composted.

SHOW COMMENTS