Agence France-Presse, Sweden is considering abolishing compulsory military service, Defense Minister Mikael Odenberg told the TT news agency May 14.
Conscription would be ended in peacetime but would be reintroduced if Sweden were to come under threat — and in such case it would apply equally to men and women, he said.
Odenberg said he planned to commission an inquiry to examine the issue this year.
“I am not imagining a professional army. The choice does not lie between a professional army and military service. The reality is more complex than that,” he said.
He told the Svenska Dagbladet daily he believed a sufficient number of young Swedes would want to volunteer for military service, but did not say how such a system would work.
Odenberg said Sweden’s conscription system was outdated, since major cutbacks in the defence budget have forced the military to reduce the number of conscripts called up each year to an average of 8,000.
In 2007, only some 5,000 are to be called up.
The minister also called for a more gender neutral policy to be introduced.
“When the army is looking for recruits, it will employ those most suitable, regardless of gender. Women have an important role to play in the army,” Odenberg said.
At present, all Swedish males aged between 18 and 24 are liable for up to 11 months of military service. Military service is open to women on a voluntary basis.
