'Active citizenship' is a concept currently used in the supranational educational policy of the European Union. While alluding to a potential to promote democracy and human rights this policy seems to be increasingly influenced by neo liberal tendencies. In this article Swedish education policy is taken as a case in order to highlight how the concept of active citizenship education is handled in this ‘local’ national policy setting in Europe. It is argued that Swedish education policy on citizenship is marked out by a neo liberal orientation as regards the depiction of citizenship, where the envisioned ‘active’ citizen can be described as one marked out by a consuming attitude for self-making. To this end, Sweden appears to respond to supranational EU demands quite well as regards its education policy on citizenship. Nevertheless the 'neo' in Swedish education policy on citizenship is unsatisfactory, I argue, as it tends to gloss over important notions of citizenship and citizenship education necessary to consider in our times.