More financial openness from the Royal Court & Royal Family - Part of the deal in the State Budget for 2006
(Summary of an article in Dagens Nyheter yesterday)
When the State Budget for 2006 was presented yesterday, it became known that a part of the deal in it settled that the Royal Court and the Royal Family are going to have to be more open in their economical affairs from next year and onwards.
The Ministry of Finance and the Marshal of the Realm have been in talks and negotiations for a while now, trying to establish how the openness could be increased without violating the Royal Family’s right to personal integrity, and yesterday the deal that they have struck was presented as a part of the new State Budget. This means that the old deal that Karl XIII and the Parliament made in 1809, which concluded that the monarch and Royal Family didn’t have to account for their financial business, will not be valid anymore.
The State Budget lays down that the Royal Court’s annual report shall “be more detailed when it comes to the activities carried out within the funding allocations (apanage) of the Court Administration”
The new deal means that the Government wants to know for example how many travel days a year the Royal Family has, how many guests attend all official functions, the expenditure of the Royal Mews, and also much the households of Queen Silvia, Princess Lilian and the Crown Princess gets every year.
- I don’t think we will have any difficulties following this, I would say, commented the Royal Court’s highest official, the Marshal of the Realm, yesterday.
The original article (in Swedish) can be found here.