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Local Norway
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Norway
Norwegian language test law sent unchanged for parliamentary vote
The parliamentary Committee on Local Government and Public Administration delivered its recommendation to Norway's parliament on the Changes to the Immigration Act bill opening the way for it to be debated and voted through on June 6th. If passed the bill will mean that applicants for permanent residency no longer need to document that they have completed mandatory training in Norwegian language and social studies up to the most elementary A1 level, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). READ ALSO: How changes to Norway's requirements for permanent residence will affect you Instead, applicants will need to take a test proving that they can speak Norwegian at the slightly more advanced A2 level, defined as being the point at which people can understand simple everyday language and express themselves on basic topics. In its report, a majority of the MPs on the committee, who represent all of Norway's political parties, said they support the changes, which they said would "facilitate automated case processing in the immigration administration", making it a "good efficiency measure". The only opposition came from members representing the populist, anti-immigration Progress Party, who argued that the language requirement should be raised still higher to the upper intermediate B2 level, enough to interact with "a degree of fluency and spontaneity". The committee ignored the concerns raised in the consultation by the Language Council of Norway, the charity Caritas and several others that the stricter demands proposed would cause anxiety and so hinder integration while also effectively barring immigrants with limited prior schooling and low literacy from permanent residency. Advertisement The bill also includes new limits to family reunification for immigrants with more than one wife, and clarifies the legal basis for financial support for return or repatriation.
Local Norway
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Norway
Norway's government to mull emergency supply centres
The proposal was adopted by Norway's parliament on Tuesday evening, and the government will investigate establishing emergency stores similar to those neighbouring Finland wants to adopt. Finland has set itself the goal of setting up 300 such stores by 2028. The Centre Party, the Progress Party, the Socialist Left Party, the Liberal Party, and the Labour Party supported Tuesday's proposal. The emergency supply centres will need to be able to run in the event of emergencies such as large-scale power outages, such as those seen across parts of Southern Europe last week. Once the government has conducted its investigation, it will report its findings to parliament. The proposal was adopted as part of a wider focus on emergency preparedness. Centre Party MP and former minister, Sandra Borch, who was among those who submitted the proposal, challenged Minister of Justice and Public Security Astri Aas-Hansen on why the government hadn't yet considered the shelters earlier. Aas-Hansen said it was because Norway had chosen solutions to potential problems different from Finland. 'When it comes to food preparedness and food supply, Norway and Finland have chosen different solutions. The government's goal is for all grocery stores to be operational even during crises. So that people can shop in their usual store,' he was reported as saying by the newspaper Nationen . Advertisement The Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (Norwegian: Direktoratet for samfunnssikkerhet og beredskap) already advises households have their own emergency supplies stocked. READ ALSO: The emergency supplies Norway's government wants you stock Earlier this year, the government said it wanted to reintroduce the mandatory construction of air raid shelters in new buildings. The same building regulation had previously been in place until 1998 but was axed following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to government estimates, the country currently has enough air raid shelters to accommodate around 45 percent of its population.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Push to allow Norway's wealth fund to invest in defence companies falters
By Gwladys Fouche OSLO (Reuters) -Opposition efforts to allow Norway's $1.8 trillion wealth fund, the world's largest, to invest in large defence companies appear to be faltering, according to lawmakers involved in the process. The fund follows ethical rules decided by parliament that prevent it from buying stakes in the likes of Airbus, Boeing, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin on the grounds they make components for nuclear weapons. Two opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Progress Party, have in recent months called on lawmakers to change the fund's guidelines on that point, coming at a time when European countries are ramping up military investment. Support for change also came from the head of the central bank, which operates the fund, who said in February Norway "must be open to the possibility that what is considered to be ethically acceptable may change as the world again becomes marked by military rearmament and growing tensions between countries". The Conservatives say it is no longer reasonable to exclude companies that make equipment critical to Norway and its allies' battle power. The fund can invest in defence companies if they are not involved in the production of nuclear weapons and is therefore invested in the likes of Rheinmetall or Leonardo. But the guidelines prevent the fund from investing in several major defence companies. Progress, meanwhile, is presenting a private member's bill, which argues it is hypocritical of Oslo to ban its fund from buying shares in Lockheed Martin while buying 52 F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. defence contractor at the same time. "This is to make capital available to the defence industry, which is especially necessary now," one of the co-authors of the bill, Hans Andreas Limi, told Reuters. They would require support from other parties to overturn the will of the minority Labour government and allow one of the world's largest investors to allot billions of dollars to defence companies. This could in turn encourage other investors sceptical of the defence industry to reconsider their views, given the fund has long been a leading voice on matters of ethical investing. LACK OF SUPPORT But supporters of the change appear to be facing an uphill battle. Among those opposing the change, is the finance ministry, led by no other than former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of the Labour Party. "We believe it is too early for another full review of the guidelines now," Deputy Finance Minister Ellen Reitan told Reuters. She said there had to be a broad consensus in parliament and reviews of the fund's ethical criteria should not be made on an ad hoc basis. "Over time, it may be appropriate to change the criteria in the guidelines. Such changes should be made on the basis of comprehensive and thorough assessments where the criteria are seen in context," she said. In a sign of its opposition, the finance ministry did not mention a possible change in its white paper on the fund in April. The paper would be the natural place to flag the issue if it were to be debated and voted on in parliament in the coming weeks. A key vote could come from the Centre Party, but it also appears to be against the proposed change. "To have calm around the fund is important, and a guarantee of its perennity, so I think it is wise to proceed very carefully," Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, the leader of the Centre Party, who until January was finance minister, told Reuters. Other parties, such as the Greens, concur. "It is true that we are in a phase of massive military armament, which we need to support," Rasmus Hansson, parliamentary leader for the Greens, told Reuters. "But we see no reason for it to be necessary for the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund to profit from this rearmament." (Reporting by Gwladys FoucheEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
Reuters
07-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Push to allow Norway's wealth fund to invest in defence companies falters
OSLO, May 7 (Reuters) - Opposition efforts to allow Norway's $1.8 trillion wealth fund, the world's largest, to invest in large defence companies appear to be faltering, according to lawmakers involved in the process. The fund follows ethical rules decided by parliament that prevent it from buying stakes in the likes of Airbus ( opens new tab, Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab, BAE Systems (BAES.L), opens new tab and Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), opens new tab on the grounds they make components for nuclear weapons. Two opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Progress Party, have in recent months called on lawmakers to change the fund's guidelines on that point, coming at a time when European countries are ramping up military investment. Support for change also came from the head of the central bank, which operates the fund, who said in February Norway "must be open to the possibility that what is considered to be ethically acceptable may change as the world again becomes marked by military rearmament and growing tensions between countries". The Conservatives say it is no longer reasonable to exclude companies that make equipment critical to Norway and its allies' battle power. The fund can invest in defence companies if they are not involved in the production of nuclear weapons and is therefore invested in the likes of Rheinmetall ( opens new tab or Leonardo ( opens new tab. But the guidelines prevent the fund from investing in several major defence companies. Progress, meanwhile, is presenting a private member's bill, which argues it is hypocritical of Oslo to ban its fund from buying shares in Lockheed Martin while buying 52 F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. defence contractor at the same time. "This is to make capital available to the defence industry, which is especially necessary now," one of the co-authors of the bill, Hans Andreas Limi, told Reuters. They would require support from other parties to overturn the will of the minority Labour government and allow one of the world's largest investors to allot billions of dollars to defence companies. This could in turn encourage other investors sceptical of the defence industry to reconsider their views, given the fund has long been a leading voice on matters of ethical investing. LACK OF SUPPORT But supporters of the change appear to be facing an uphill battle. Among those opposing the change, is the finance ministry, led by no other than former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of the Labour Party. "We believe it is too early for another full review of the guidelines now," Deputy Finance Minister Ellen Reitan told Reuters. She said there had to be a broad consensus in parliament and reviews of the fund's ethical criteria should not be made on an ad hoc basis. "Over time, it may be appropriate to change the criteria in the guidelines. Such changes should be made on the basis of comprehensive and thorough assessments where the criteria are seen in context," she said. In a sign of its opposition, the finance ministry did not mention a possible change in its white paper on the fund in April. The paper would be the natural place to flag the issue if it were to be debated and voted on in parliament in the coming weeks. A key vote could come from the Centre Party, but it also appears to be against the proposed change. "To have calm around the fund is important, and a guarantee of its perennity, so I think it is wise to proceed very carefully," Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, the leader of the Centre Party, who until January was finance minister, told Reuters. Other parties, such as the Greens, concur. "It is true that we are in a phase of massive military armament, which we need to support," Rasmus Hansson, parliamentary leader for the Greens, told Reuters. "But we see no reason for it to be necessary for the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund to profit from this rearmament."
Local Norway
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Norway
Norway's Progress Party wants zero net immigration from 'high-risk countries'
Immigration policy spokesperson for the populist-right Progress Party Erlend Wiborg made the comments to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten on Friday ahead of the party's national conference at the weekend. 'Our goal is zero net immigration from high-risk countries,' he said. Wiborg said countries in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia could be described as 'high-risk' as the party believes refugees from these countries present integration challenges related to crime, low employment, use of public benefits and social segregation. 'Over time, Norway has accepted far too many immigrants from such countries. It is not sustainable and imposes enormous costs on taxpayers. We see ever-growing problems related to crime and segregation. The experiences from Sweden are frightening,' he told the paper. His comments on Sweden referred to an increase in gang crime in recent years, which politicians in both Sweden and Norway opposed to immigration attribute to failed integration and increased immigration. Last year, ordinary 4,970 asylum applications were handed into the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI). However, Norway also has a fast-track 'collective protection' asylum scheme for those fleeing the war in Ukraine, with 90,082 asylum seekers from the Ukraine having been granted this status since the war broke out in 2022 . Wiborg said the Progress Party would prioritise Christian refugees. Wiborg said the party wanted to measure how well local authorities were integrating arrivals based on several parameters. 'Everything from the proportion of people in work, crime, receipt of public benefits, education and participation in society and other factors should be openly available to everyone, and show how integration works. This way, municipalities can also learn from each other, while at the same time stopping all immigration to municipalities that clearly have major integration challenges,' Wiborg said. Advertisement The party also wants to establish asylum reception centres in third countries like Rwanda. Something which the party it would look to form a right-wing coalition with, the Conservative Party, is also in favour of. Last month, Wiborg outlined how the Progress Party would also tighten up the citizenship, permanent residence and family reunification processes, saying Norway ' hands out citizenships like candy '. READ ALSO: How Norway's citizenship rules could be tightened under a new government
