Swedish National Day celebration

The theme of the evening was sustainability and the importance of taking action and responsibility in order to achieve a sustainable future. The guests had the opportunity to view the Swedish cartoonists’ contributions to the exhibition “Facing the Climate”.

Traditional Swedish food was served, prepared by the Residence’s staff while the guests got to listen to the beautiful tones of the jazz band Orfeas Wärdig Tsoukalas Quartet. Later in the evening they also got to listen to some Swedish Music through the decades, which was playing during the whole evening to remember a fantastic music history. For the second time within the last four years, Sweden managed to win the Eurovision song contest and to celebrate this, the winning performance was broadcasted on the big screen.

Ambassador Charlotte Wrangberg, in her National Day speech emphasized the environment and sustainability and that as we are facing the future, we must increase our
global environmental efforts. She stressed the importance of how crucial a new climate agreement under the UN is. The ambassador continued to talk about how the love and respect for the Swedish nature is a key element for the Swedish people and that the Swedes’ close relationship with nature, has led us to understand that the natural resources are not infinite. This is why Sweden has managed to come so far within the field of sustainability; Sweden has the highest percentage of renewable energy in the EU (over 47 per cent), and less than one per cent of Sweden’s household waste ends up in landfills – the rest is recycled in different ways. Protection of the environment is also high on the agenda for the Swedish companies present in Greece. As a testament on the importance of sustainability in Sweden and how anchored it is in the everyday life in Sweden, an exhibition was held showing sustainable design by H&M and IKEA.