The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Swedish: Svenskt Näringsliv, literally Swedish Commerce) is a major interest organisation for business and industry in Sweden. It has 48 member associations representing close to 55.000 member companies with more than 1.5 million employees.
The current organisation is the result of a merger between the Swedish Employers Association (Svenska Arbetsgivareföreningen, SAF) and the Swedish National Federation of Industry (Sveriges Industriförbund) that was completed in March 2001.
Like its predecessors, the organisation is actively lobbying for pro-business interests. Tax cuts, especially the abolition of property and inheritance taxes, is a main priority. The organisation also promotes letting private enterprises take over the production of a larger part of services today mainly performed by the Swedish public sector, such as education and health services.
The organisation's 200 employees work in the Stockholm main office, 22 regional offices in Sweden and the EU Brussels regional office. The current CEO is former Bank of Sweden governor Urban Bäckström, while Ericsson chairman Michael Treschow serves as the chairman of the board.
The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise partly finances Timbro, a libertarian, free-market think tank, via Stiftelsen Fritt Näringsliv (The Swedish Free Enterprise Foundation).
|
|||||