Sweden consistently ranks as an easy place to do business in surveys among executives [1]. It's also much faster and simpler to start a new business in Sweden than it is in France. I'm picking two examples which speak to my broader experiences. That said, they're anecdotes responding to a pattern pointed out in the article.

I'm not saying doing business in non-Swedish Europe is not worthwhile. It's just a lot easier in Sweden. When timelines matter or complexity is high, the Swedish team–in my experience–has come through more frequently. (I put Switzerland into a similar "easy to deal with" category, though I'm biased in being Swiss American.)

> if American English is a dealbreaker

I grew up speaking French and British English, so no, it probably is not. But when co-ordinating communications between an American legal team and overseas ones, I've seen (and perhaps I only notice this because I speak and write in both dialects) one team say one thing and the other read it as something else (or get confused) where all one needs do to alleviate the problem is "translate". This happens less when co-ordinating with Sweden. It's a small factor and certainly attributes no fault to anyone, but it's a factor that adds up to transactional costs.

[1] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/11/these-are-the-easiest...