Agreement on the state budget – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
– I am very happy that after good work for two weeks plus, including hours during the day and hours at night, we have become the only ones on the state budget for 2022, says Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Labor).
In the agreement between SV and the government parties Ap and Sp, it is quickly stated that there will be no 26th licensing round on the Norwegian shelf in 2022, and the CO2 tax on the oil industry will increase sharply, by 28 percent.
He says the parties have worked in two stages with the budget. Støre says that the important thing for the Labor Party was to secure holiday pay for those who have been allowed in 2021, and that the parties have found a good solution to this.
– We have now secured a scheme where what applied to those who were unemployed in 2020 applies to those who were laid off in 2021, says Støre.
He claims it is the greenest budget in many years.
– You will see a policy that focuses on industry, climate cuts and green policy, with proper measures, says Støre.
Minister of Finance Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) says the total tax burden goes down. He says that for ordinary motorists in Norway, the costs will not increase. Electricity prices are also given space in the agreement.
– The tax measures that have been made, for example, on electricity taxes, that we keep a reduction in electricity taxes in January-March. We believe this is correct and important, says Vedum.
Free SFO for first step
Vedum says that the three parties have not increased the use of oil money in this budget.
SV’s party leader Audun Lysbakken thanks his opponents for good, tough and fruitful negotiations.
– We get a budget that puts to store important welfare reforms, free SFO and dental health reform, on track, says Lysbakken.
From the start of school, there will be a free half-day place in SFO for all the country’s first classes, according to Lysbakken. The work with a form of dental health will also be kicked off, through cheaper dentists for young people, and more support for orthodontics, according to SV.
Since 15 November, the Labor Party, the Socialist People’s Party and the Socialist People’s Party have been negotiating what next year’s state budget will look like. The Labor Party and the Socialist People’s Party, who sit in the government, presented their proposal earlier in November.
The negotiations were raised to the highest level, ie to the party leaders, this weekend. In other words, the parties’ fiscal politicians, those who have been negotiators, were not the only ones. There have been long and extensive budget meetings.
– We have worked well over the weekend, together with the party leaders. Now we will continue to work through the day today, hoping to go one step further, as SV’s Kari Elisabeth Kaski to NRK earlier today.
Among the nuts that have been hard to crack are taxes, climate measures, holiday pay for laid-off workers and record high electricity prices.
Promised to the party leaders this weekend
In the negotiations, a demand for holiday pay for unemployment benefits has been raised, among other things.
From a Labor source in the government apparatus, NRK was informed last week that the government parties put a proposal of limited scope on the table. The offer is “too small” was the message from SV about what was then on the table.
Thursday is the so-called financial debate in the Storting. It was therefore urgent to become the only one within time, because that is basically when an agreement on the budget should be completed.
The Labor Party and the Socialist People’s Party together form a minority government. This means that they must cooperate with other parties in the Storting to get their cases through.
SV has enough politicians in the Storting to give a majority to the government’s proposal on, for example, the state budget.
They promised in advance tough negotiations on, among other things, SFO, cuts in motorway projects, more money for public transport and more for dental health.
One week into the negotiations, the parliamentary leaders were connected because the Labor Party and the Socialist People’s Party thought it was going too slowly going forward.