For a long time confined to Article 106(2) TFEU, a provision allowing to justify regulatory measures derogating from Treaty rules by invoking their necessity in order to enable undertakings entrusted with services of general economic interest (SGEIs) to fulfil their special tasks, SGEI has become a constitutional concept of EU law. In the post-Lisbon EU Treaties it is subject to new provisions, in particular Article 14 TFEU and the Protocol on services on general interest. As a legal concept allowing to balance EU market integration and the pursuit of legitimate national policies related to public services, SGEI is also a political concept, and therefore its legal interpretation is an ultra-sensitive matter. This dissertation proposes that SGEI cannot anymore be contrived as a narrow concept of EU competition law, but must be understood as a broad public service concept encompassing both public authorities’ policy missions and undertakings’ public service obligations. This follows from an analysis of the CJEU’s understanding of the EU concept of SGEI in the frame of Hirschman’s theory on exit and voice, and thus on the double background of its own case law foreclosing exit from EU market rules for public services, and of its acknowledgement of the SGEI “voice” this has led to in the Treaties. The analysis shows that the CJEU’s bifurcation by the notions of “public service obligations” and “public service tasks”, is aimed at applying the Treaty SGEI provisions loyally without pre-empting their political use by the Union and the Member States. To shed some light on the political use of the EU concept of SGEI made by the EU legislator and the Member States in a context of Europeanisation and liberalisation, this dissertation scrutinizes also how the new EU procurement and state aid rules applying to social services relate to the Treaty principles on SGEIs, and how the Swedish systems of choice for elderly home care and education relate to the EU rules. It analyses whether these relationships, if too transparent and loyal, may constrain the process of liberalisation of social services in the Member States, and whether it can explain that an explicit characterisation of social services as SGEIs seems to be avoided in EU procurement law and in Swedish law.

Forests extend on about 4 billion hectares on the planet Earth, which makes up approximately one third of the total land area and is probably one of the most important environmental elements on the planet.In the Czech Republic forests cover about 33.7% of its land area.Out of Sweden's total land area, which is 41.3 million hectares, there is 23 million hectares of forest land. That is more than half of its total area. Creation of clear-cut areas, loss of the forests natural evolution information, waste majority of artificial forest, storm or fires are just some of the indicators of unsatisfactory conditions of forests. Therefore there is a strong importance for forest protection by means of legal regulation - International, European and especially national law, to be capable of leaving this heritage in a good condition for future generations. In this work I will focus on the comparison of forestry law in the Czech Republic and Sweden - from formal and also material point of view.

In our case study we investigate how media chose to illuminate the process of court proceedings concerning a one specific rape case in Sweden during the spring and autumn 2007. For our study we have chosen to investigate two Swedish daily newspapers, one known to be a serious morning newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, and the other an evening tabloid newspaper Expressen. We would like to see whether the reports of the trial diverge and if that is, how they differ. The rape took place in Stockholm’s posh area named Stureplan in March 2007. The two men 21 and 25 years old, accused for the crime were acquitted after the first instance. The appeal was lodged to the second instance where they were convicted for rape. We find it interesting to find out whether media considered the men innocent and gave an objective view after the first trial or if media judged the men nevertheless. To find out how the media wrote about the men we used a qualitative content analysis. We looked for characteristics in the newspapers, those being for example, who get to talk? What did they say? How are the people involved described, trustworthy? Using the theory of Media Logic we have drawn conclusions of why media has chosen to report as they did. Our conclusion is that both newspapers are very similar in their coverage of the rape. They also almost solely took the woman’s, victim’s part by letting her communicate her opinion and emotions to the general public during the entire process. What we found interesting was that Expressen almost used texts that were subjective while Dagens Nyheter reported about the case in the same way, but in their newsarticles. The media furthermore show a feeling of victory when the men are ordered guilty of the rape. The media legitimize their earlier preferential treatment for the woman by the announcement “we were right all the time” and the Swedish judicial system had made a mistake.

This degree project investigated landfills that takes care of municipal solid waste in an area around the Mekong delta, namely An Giang province, Vietnam. The main objective for this study was to provide basic work in order to create a discussion with the local food markets to separate the household’s food waste from the rest. Such a discussion is possible to create through collaboration with local authorities and inform or guide stakeholders on how waste management can be improved, out of existing knowledge from Sweden. Therefore, this study aims to illuminate and give knowledge for improvements in questions regarding efficiency, organisation, participation, recycling and opportunities associated with a more efficient waste management system.Since a significant percentage of the household waste generated in Long Xuyen City, An Giang province are organic, the opportunity to convert organic waste into soil amendments was examined. Leachate from one of the landfills in the area was also analysed in order to get further understanding for its composition, focusing on organic parameters. / Det här examensarbetet undersökte deponier som tar hand om hushållsavfall i ett område runt Mekongdeltat, närmare bestämt An Giang provinsen, Vietnam. Det främsta målet för den här studien var ett ge underlag till att skapa en diskussion med lokala matmarknader för att få dem att separera hushållens matavfall från övrigt avfall. En sådan diskussion är möjlig att skapa genom samarbete mellan lokala myndigheter och att informera eller vägvisa intressenter om hur avfallshanteringen kan förbättras, ut ifrån befintlig kunskap från Sverige. Därför fokuserar den här studien på att förklara och ge kunskap för förbättringar i frågor rörande effektivitet, organisation, deltagande, återvinning och möjligheter associerade med ett mer effektivt avfallshanteringssystem. Eftersom en stor andel av hushållsavfallet som genereras i Long Xuyen, An Giang-provinsen är organiskt, undersöktes möjligheten att konvertera organiskt avfall till jordförbättringsmedel. Lakvatten analyserades från en av deponierna i området för att få en djupare förståelse för dess sammansättning, med fokus på organiska parametrar.

Background: Hotels are considered a risky environment because guests are not expected to be awake and are expected to have poor local knowledge. Although hotels doesn’t have acceptable fire protection according to the only previously known study in this area. This is a problem because every four to five days there is a hotel fire. The hotels would be able to reach an acceptable fire safety by pursuing a systematic fire protection and take certain construction actions. Aim: Identifying details that need to be introduced in hotels daily work with fire protection based on the Swedish law and case studies. Method: A literature review and two case studies of hotel fires. Results: The hotel in Sweden followed the Swedish legislation in force in 2009 and had a good organizational fire protection. The hotel mainly needed to improve was the structural fire protection, adapted for disabled people, control of the acoustics in the evacuation alarm and had more smoke detectors. The hotel in England didn’t follow the law in force in England in 2007 and was nearly entirely lacking fire protection. They needed primarily improve the structural fire protection, adapted for disabled people, upgrade their alarm, had several smoke detectors and had a systematic fire protection. Conclusion: Swedish legislation still needs to be clear up because there is still room for interpretation of the laws as they are functional requirements. It is good that the Swedish legislation has adapted to fires that already has occurred in Sweden, but what could be done better today is motivate hotels to get involved in their fire protection. A committed management in hotels means better systematic fire protections and more money spend on the fire protection. One way to motivate hotel managements is to further inform about the consequences of a fire and to encourage hotels to certify themselves. But is not enough to only have a good systematic fire protection, the technical fire protection also needs to upgrade. It should be introduce higher demands that the hotels should be more handicap-friendly and update their fire alarms, because it saves lives and lower the material damage.

It is necessary for large companies to understand and be able to adapt to the industrial transformation towards an increasing focus on energy efficiency, which takes place today. The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED)issued by the European Union has enlarged the focus on working with energy efficiency within large companies. Further, the Swedish government has introduced the law about energy auditing in large companies, which is based on the EED. These regulations encourage companies to develop a management system that includes requirements on conducting energy audits and propose cost effective measures.  Energy efficiency is already an important aspect within many companies environmental work, however a more developed and systematic approach to energy efficiency than most companies already have is needed in order to fulfill the legal requirements. The Company investigated in this study is one the world’s leading technology companies with more than 9000 employees in Sweden. Currently, they have energy as a significant aspect in their environmental work according to the international management system standard ISO 14001. Today they are also developing their energy work by conducting energy audits in order to comply with the new legislation. This gives a more detailed view of the energy use and potential improvements that can be done, but in order to ensure continual improvements over a long period of time further measures are needed.  Within this study it was investigated what measures a large company needs to implement in order to increase their energy performance and comply with the legislation. By a literature review focusing on management systems as well as interviews within the Company, a complementary study with two companies covered by the EED and three expert interviews, five key factors were identified. These factors are top management commitment, awareness, goals, measurements and evaluation. A model was then developed aligning these factors. Further, concrete proposals for action to manage these factors were presented. By increasing focus on these key factors and implement proposed measures companies will increase their energy performance and make the organization aware of how actions affect a company’s energy performance.

Till följd av att Skatteverket hade uppmärksammat problematiken med skatteplanering med ränteavdrag, så kallade räntesnurror, infördes de första svenska ränteavdragsbegränsningsreglerna för koncerninterna lån för företag i intressegemenskap år 2009. Dessa regler var inspirerade av motsvarande ränteavdragsbegränsningsregler i Nederländerna. På grund av att skatteplaneringen fortsatte, utvidgades de svenska ränteavdragsbegränsningsreglernas tillämpningsområde år 2013. Det har dock visat sig att på grund av nuvarande utformning och tillämpningsområde av 2013 års svenska regler, medför reglerna både tillämpningsproblem och fortsatt skatteplanering. Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka utfallet av att införa liknande regler som nederländska ränteavdragsbegränsningsregler i Sverige, i nuvarande svenska ränteavdragsbegränsningsreglers ställe, för att analysera vilket av dessa regelverk som bäst uppfyller ändamålet med de svenska ränteavdragsbegränsningsreglerna. Uppsatsen visar att det finns både likheter och skillnader, i såväl utformningen som i tilllämpningsområdet, mellan de svenska och de nederländska ränteavdragsbegränsningsreglerna. Det framgår av uppsatsen att skillnaderna inte i varje bestämmelse i det nederländska regelverket leder till en möjlig lösning på den kvarstående problematiken med de svenska ränteavdragsbegränsningsreglerna. Författaren anser att en blandad tillämpning av några nuvarande svenska bestämmelser och vissa bestämmelser lika de nederländska bäst skulle uppfylla ändamålet med de svenska ränteavdragsbegränsningsreglerna. / Due to the fact that the Swedish tax authority had paid attention to the issues concerning tax avoidance with the use of interest deduction, the first Swedish rules on interest deduction limitations on intra-group loans were introduced for associated companies in 2009. These rules were inspired by the equivalent Dutch rules on interest deduction limitations. Since the tax avoidance continued, the scope of the Swedish interest deduction limitation rules were extended in 2013. However, it has been shown that due to the formulation and the scope of the current Swedish rules, the legislation causes both interpretation issues and continuing tax avoidance. This thesis aims at examining the outcome of introducing similar rules as the Dutch interest deduction limitation rules in Sweden, instead of the current Swedish legislation, in order to analyze which of these legislations that better fulfills the purpose of the Swedish rules on interest deduction limitations. The thesis shows that there are both similarities as well as differences, with regards to both the formulation and the scope, between the Swedish and the Dutch rules on interest deduction limitations. It appears in the thesis that the differences in every provision of the Dutch legislation do not provide a possible solution to the remaining issues with the Swedish rules on interest deduction limitations. The author of the thesis considers a mixed application, containing some current Swedish provisions and some selected provisions similar to the Dutch provisions, to better fulfill the purpose of the Swedish rules on interest deduction limitations.

Det är nödvändigt för stora företag att förstå och kunna anpassa sig till den industriella omvandling mot ett ökat fokus på energieffektivitet som sker idag. Energieffektiviseringsdirektivet som Europeiska Unionen har utfärdat har ökat fokus på att arbeta med energieffektivitet i stora företag. Vidare har den svenska regeringen infört lagen om energikartläggning i stora företag som är baserad på Energieffektiviseringsdirektivet. Dessa lagstadgade krav uppmuntrar företag att utveckla ett ledningssystem som ställer krav på genomförande av energikartläggningar samt föreslå kostnadseffektiva åtgärder. Energieffektivitet är redan en riktigdel i många företags miljöarbete dock krävs ett mer Utvecklat och systematiskt arbetssätt än det många företag redan har för att uppnå kraven i Energieffektiviseringsdirektivet och den svenska lagen. Företaget som har undersökts i denna studie är ett världsledande teknikföretag med mer än 9000 anställda i Sverige. För närvarande har de energi som en signifikant aspekt i sitt miljöarbete i enlighet med den internationella standarden för miljöledningssystem ISO14001dag utvecklar de även sitt energiarbete genom att utföra energikartläggningar för att uppfylla den nya lagstiftningen. Detta ger en mer detaljerad insikt över energianvändningen och möjliga förbättringar som kan göras, men för att säkerställa ständiga förbättringar över en längre tidsperiod krävs ytterligare åtgärder.  I den här studien har det undersökts vilka åtgärder som ett stort företag måste införa för att öka energiprestandan och följa lagstiftningen. Genom en litteraturstudie som fokuserade på ledningssystem i kombination med intervjuer på det undersöka företaget, en kompletterande studie av två företag som omfattas av direktivet samt tre expertintervjuer identifierades fem nyckelfaktorer. Dessa faktorer är högsta ledningens engagemang, medvetenhet, mål, mätningar och utvärdering. En modell för att strukturera faktorerna utvecklades sedan. Vidare presenterades konkreta förslag på hur dessa faktorer ska implementeras. Genom att öka fokus på dessa nyckelfaktorer och implementera föreslagna åtgärder kommer företag öka sin energiprestanda och medvetenhet i organisationen om hur olika handlingar påverkar företagets energiprestanda. / It is necessary for large companies to understand and be able to adapt to the industrial Transformation towards an increasing focus on energy efficiency, which takes place today. The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED)issued by the European Union has enlarged the focus on working with energy efficiency within large companies. Further, the Swedish government has introduced the law about energy auditing in large companies, which is based on the EED. These regulations encourage companies to develop a management system that includes requirements on conducting energy audits and propose cost Deffective measures. Energy efficiency is already an important aspect within many companies environmental work, however a more developed and systematic approach to energy efficiency than most companies already have is needed in order to fulfill the legal requirements. The Company investigated in this study is one the worlds leading technology companies with more than 9000  employees in Sweden. Currently, they have energy as a significant aspect in their environmental work according to the international management system standard ISO 14001. Today they are also developing their energy work by conducting energy audits in order to comply with the new legislation. This gives a mor detailed view of the energy use and potential improvements that can be done, but in order to ensure continual improvements over a long period of time further measures are needed. Within this study it was investigated what measures a large company needs to implement in order to increase their energy performance and comply with the legislation. By a literature review focusing on management systems as well as interviews within the Company, a complementary study with two companies covered by the EED and three expert  interviews, five key factors were identified. These factors are, top management commitment, awareness, goals, measurements and evaluation. A model was then developed aligning these factors. Further, concrete proposals for action to manage these factors were presented. By!increasing focus on these key factors and implement proposed measures companies will increase their energy performance and also make the organization aware of how actions affect a company’s energy performance

New regulations of labour immigration from countries outside of EU and EEA have on the 15th of December 2008 been introduced into the Swedish legal system. This research examines the law changes of labour immigration from third countries to Sweden at the time of the ratification of the new law. The aim of this research has been to examine how common labour immigration directives and policies of EU are maintained and implemented in the domestic sphere of Sweden and the possible outcomes on the Swedish labour market by applying the current law implementations. The results show the complexity of combining national laws with EU policies and regulations. The main findings show a difficulty of maintaining an unharmed principle of community preference as well as to preserve Swedish employment standards in order not to risk wage dumping when implementing the new law of labour immigration.

Background: Historical buildings in Sweden with the highest value of cultural heritage are administrated by the state and are protected by the directive SFS 2013:588. Also there are laws which demands that all public buildings which are administrated by the government should be accessible for everyone, with or without disabilities. This law also demands that in case of fire all visitors should be able to evacuate safely, including people with disabilities. This may be problematic to achieve without damaging the cultural value. Aim: The aim of this work is therefore to investigate a safe way for people with disabilities to evacuate in case of fire in buildings with high cultural value in Sweden, which are administrated by the state, with focus on the technical solutions. The aim is also to investigate improvement measures for the studied buildings and the laws in Sweden regarding the subject. Method: This work in bases on a literature study and a case study. The purpose of the literature study was to identify the previous studies and background information which was needed to find solutions to the problem. The case study were constructed to see how technical solutions are incorporated in actual buildings, but also to see how the evacuation can improve. Results: The work shows that all buildings in the case study has a sufficient evacuation plan for people with disabilities, but could be improved especially for people with visual disabilities without destroying the cultural heritage. Conclusion: One conclusion is that the focus often lies on technical solutions to make it possible for people with mobility impairments to evacuate, but the needs of people with visual disabilities are often overlooked. Therefore the laws regarding the subject should clarified that all people with disabilities also should have the same possibility to evacuate safety. Another conclusion is that it is possible to implement technical solutions in historical buildings without significantly destroying the cultural value. However, more research is required to develop new and improved solutions for these type of buildings.