Lund fears Göteborg anti-EU fallout

Date: 05/07/01

SWEDISH ambassador Gunnar Lund is "praying" that the violence at last month's Göteborg summit has not turned the Swedish people against the European Union.

Speaking at the end of Stockholm's stint at the EU helm, Lund said the six-month presidency had helped to persuade his famously eurosceptic countrymen of the benefits of

Union membership. But he added that he is worried about the effect the Göteborg rioting would have on public opinion. "I am very glad to note that the opinion polls measuring people's opinion and view of the EU take a jump upwards in May and June. I am just praying that they will remain at that level after the Göteborg summit."

Centre-right MEP Hans Gert Pöttering, the leader of the largest political force in the Parliament, the EPP-ED group, said Göteborg had shown the lie to socialist claims that it is only far-right groups, like Austria's

Freedom Party, which pose a threat to European democracy. He said: "The socialists have levelled heavy criticism at the so-called right wing in Europe and also political violence as perpetrated by the right wing in Europe. Criticism of right-wing extremism and political violence is something we can support, of course, but the socialists have abused this situation to slander the parties which are to the right of them. Events in Göteborg, where there were violent incidents, teach us that we must not only fight violence on the right but also on the left wing."

Swedish ambassador Gunnar Lund is 'praying' that the violence at the Gothenburg summit in June 2001 has not turned the Swedish people against the European Union.