Swedes stood with Britain for EU reform and are disappointed by our decision to quit 

FOR US, Brexit means losing one of our closest allies in the EU, writes Ulla Gudmundson. Sweden and Britain have stood together for years on just about every issue, except (significantly) those related to ”social Europe”.

The European Economic Community was founded in 1957 by six continental states ravaged by war and whose democratic systems had been crushed or heavily compromised by Nazism and Fascism. Without that experience, they would probably not have accepted the partial transfer of sovereignty to supranational institutions. Britain and Sweden survived the war with their democratic institutions intact. We share a reluctance to transfer key aspects of sovereignty, such as taxation, to the EU level.

Geographically, we are on the northern fringe of Europe; we are natural free-traders who have consistently resisted the protectionist instincts that occasionally surface in Southern and Central Europe.

Many Swedes, myself included, sympathised with much of the criticism put forward by the Brexit side during the referendum campaign: lack of democracy, lobbyism, bureaucratic centralism, etc. The lies told by the Brexiteers were shocking, but it is a fact that pro-EU experts have not always been right (for instance as regards the benefits of joining the euro), and perhaps not above having their own agendas, either.