A strategic partnership for innovation, digitalisation and green solutions between Sweden and France was signed in November 2017 in Gothenburg by Prime Minister Löfven and President Macron.
THE PARTNERSHIP COVERS:
The Embassy of Sweden in Paris has established informal reference groups, including relevant Swedish companies and French subsidiaries to Swedish companies, to discuss and share ideas on the strategic partnership.
The reference groups cover the areas of Green transport, Energy and Smart Cities; Digitalisation and Start-ups; and Life Science.
In November 2017, the Swedish Minister for Infrastructure Tomas Eneroth and the French Minister of Transport Elisabeth Borne jointly inaugurated the transport fair Solutrans in Lyon. The Embassy of Sweden and Business Sweden in cooperation with Ericsson France, IKEA, Scania, Volvo Group and the French Ministry of Transport organised a high-level seminar and Round table, in cooperation with the Swedish think tank Fores. The mayor of Göteborg, Ms. Ann-Sofie Hermansson, participated along with the transport cluster CLOSER (Göteborg).
As a follow-up, Ms. Elisabeth Borne participated in a meeting on 18 – 19 June 2018 in Gothenburg, the High-Level Meeting on Connected and Automated Driving.
In the margins of the One Planet Summit in Paris in December 2017, the Swedish Prime Minister Löfven and Deputy Prime Minister Lövin held a consultative meeting with representatives of Swedish companies in France regarding the innovation partnership. In March 2018, the Swedish State Secretary
Niklas Johansson at the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation invited Chief Information Officers and Head offices of major Swedish companies established in France to a follow-up meeting in Stockholm to discuss how to further deepen the cooperation between Sweden and France within the framework of the partnership.
The Swedish Minister for Financial Markets and Consumer Affairs Per Bolund participated in December 2017 in a high-level conference on Green finance at the Climate Finance Day, at the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance (Bercy), invited by Minister Bruno Le Maire. French and Swedish cooperation in Green finance was highlighted during the high-level conference with Minster Bolund as a keynote speaker.
As a follow-up to the Bercy conference, a Swedish-French Green Finance conference was held in Stockholm on 29 May 2018, Green Finance – the way forward. Implementing the French-Swedish partnership for innovation and green solutions. The participants included Minister Per Bolund, Mr. Marcus Wallenberg (Chairman of the Swedish bank SEB), Mr. Xavier Musca (Deputy CEO of Crédit Agricole), Jean Boissinot (Director for Financial Stability, Bercy) and Mats Andersson (Chairman, Swedish Green Bond Committee).
On 20 March 2018, the Swedish company Runway Safe signed a major contract with SEAM (Société d’Exploitation de l’Aéroport de Mayotte) at the Embassy of Sweden in cooperation with Business Sweden for the establishment of a new innovative and secure runway system at the airport of Mayotte, opening up for similar commercial contracts for other French airports.
On 16 May 2018, a French-Swedish meeting on expert level was held in Paris for stock-taking and sharing of experience in the Green Transport Sector as part of the innovation partnership. Particularly, the discussions focused on autonomous vehicles and electric road systems (ERS) but also on possible cooperation within other areas of the transport sector. The Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, the French Ministry of Ecological and solidary transition, the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket), the Swedish government agency Transport Analysis (Trafikanalys), the Embassy of Sweden and Business Sweden participated in the meeting.
At the initiative of the Embassy, Sweden participated for the first time with a Swedish stand in the Innovation and Start-up Tech Fair Viva Technology in Paris on 24 – 26 May 2018. The Swedish Minister for Enterprise and Innovation Mikael Damberg inaugurated the stand. He was accompanied by a delegation of Swedish start-ups, thereby highlighting the importance of digitalisation and start-ups as reflected in the innovation partnership. Minister Damberg also met with the French Secretary of State for Digital Affairs Mounir Mahjoubi to discuss the deepening of the innovation partnership.
Minister Damberg and representatives from the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova and the RISE research institute also made study visits to the Fujitsu AI Centre of Excellence in Saclay and the INRIA institute to discuss future research cooperation on Artificial Intelligence.
The Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research, Ms. Helene Hellmark Knutsson, had meetings in Paris with her French counterpart Ms. Frédérique Vidal on 23 May 2018 to discuss and promote European Research and Innovation in the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework.
11 – 14 June 2018: A round table on Green and Secure Public Transport was held on 11 June at the Embassy of Sweden, in the margins of the public transport fair Transports Publics 2018 – The European Mobility Exhibition (12 – 14 June) in Paris. The round table was organised by the Embassy and Business Sweden, with the participation of the Swedish think tank Fores, the Swedish public transport entity Västtrafik, the public transport entity in Stockholm SL, Ile de France, Volvo Buses, Scania, Axis Communications and Ericsson France.
11 June 2018: The Swedish State Secretary Mattias Landgren visited Paris, where he participated in the round table on Green and Secure Public Transport at the Embassy and had a meeting with the French Minister of Transport Elisabeth Borne. The discussion with Minister Borne focused on possible further cooperation between Sweden and France on electric road systems (ERS). The ministers also discussed ongoing negotiations in the EU on transport related issues, the cooperation within the Road Alliance and autonomous and connected vehicles.
4 – 5 October 2018: Sweden will participate in the annual Séminaire national des hospitaliers (Etude nationale de coûts) in Lyon. Swedish experts will give insights into the Swedish healthcare system (financing models, patient experience, pathway and availability of care). A workshop with participants from the Jönköping county and hospital administration and their French counterparts will be organised by the Embassy of Sweden and Business Sweden as a side event.
27 November 2018: The Embassy of Sweden, Business Sweden and Swecare will organise a high- level conference on healthcare innovations at Collège de France, supported by the Swedish companies Astra Zeneca, Capio, Ivbar and several other partners. French and Swedish high-level speakers from academia, governmental organisations, patient associations and the industry will share their perspectives on different topics relevant to the current healthcare reform work in France and the public debate in both Sweden and France.
March 2019: Sweden will participate in the inauguration of the “Test Bed for Urban Mobility” Transpolis in Lyon, in affiliation with the Swedish transport cluster CLOSER-Lindholmen and the French transport cluster CARA.