Instead, the minister, via her press secretary, refers to an interview she did with SVT in late 2019. That's when the EU clubbed a four-month long herring stop to protect the threatened Baltic Sea cod during the summer play period.

In the December interview, Jennie Nilsson stated that during the negotiations Sweden has pushed the issue of a dispensation hard:

- We had wanted an exception, but received no hearing from other countries or the Commission.

See the full interview from December below.

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