New “Sval­bard­mel­ding”: Sval­bard-stra­tegy for the next years

On Thurs­day (Novem­ber 21) the Nor­we­gi­an Par­lia­ment in Oslo, the Stort­ing, has pas­sed the new Sval­bard­mel­ding ange­nom­men. The Sval­bard­mel­ding is a govern­ment stra­tegy paper that out­lines the Sval­bard poli­tics for the next 5-10 years. It includes thus no con­cre­te legal mea­su­res but rather a set of inten­ti­ons and ide­as which have to be dis­cus­sed and tur­ned into laws in the future.

Let’s take a step back. Nor­we­gi­an Sval­bard poli­tics is based on the fol­lo­wing five prin­ci­ples:

• A con­sis­tent, con­stant main­ten­an­ce of Nor­we­gi­an sove­reig­n­ty.
• Com­pli­ance with the Sval­bard Trea­ty and moni­to­ring its imple­men­ta­ti­on.
• Main­tai­ning calm and sta­bi­li­ty.
• Pro­tec­tion of the region’s natu­re.
• Main­tainan­ce of a Nor­we­gi­an popu­la­ti­on.

Nor­we­gi­an flags in Lon­gye­ar­by­en (on the Nor­we­gi­an natio­nal day on 17 May): Lon­gye­ar­by­en and all of Sval­bard are and will remain Nor­we­gi­an. But the govern­ment would pre­fer to have a hig­her pro­por­ti­on of Nor­we­gi­ans among­st Longyearbyen’s popu­la­ti­on. Sys­sel­mes­ter Lars Fau­se (front right) is the hig­hest repre­sen­ta­ti­ve of the Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment on site.

And what’s in it?

Quite a lot, the docu­ment has more than 80 pages. You can down­load it on the government’s web­site.

And the govern­ment has alre­a­dy imple­men­ted seve­ral major legal pro­jects in the recent past, inclu­ding a reform of the local elec­to­ral law that cost many for­eign voters their local voting rights. The new rules for tou­rists that come into force on 01 Janu­ary, 2025 are ano­ther important new set of legis­la­ti­on. Ener­gy and housing are other important topics that have been work­ed on for years alre­a­dy on various levels, see below.

Some important points of the new Sval­bard­mel­ding:

Men­tal health

The­re are peo­p­le with men­tal health pro­blems all over the world and Sval­bard is of cour­se no excep­ti­on. Howe­ver, tho­se who are con­fron­ted with acu­te men­tal health pro­blems in Lon­gye­ar­by­en have very limi­t­ed access to pro­fes­sio­nal help. This may have cost two peo­p­le their lives in the recent past: the­re have been two sui­ci­des in Lon­gye­ar­by­en in 2023.

It is main­ly thanks to the com­mit­ment of Longyearbyen’s poli­ti­cal youth that the govern­ment wants to impro­ve this situa­ti­on, but accor­ding to them, applau­de is not due befo­re a psy­cho­lo­gist is actual­ly instal­led in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, accor­ding to NRK.

Air­freight

This is not about same day deli­very to the final con­su­mer. But a sup­p­ly of goods of all kinds, inclu­ding fresh pro­du­ce accor­ding to modern stan­dards, should be available in Lon­gye­ar­by­en all year round. The­re had been some dis­cus­sion and uncer­tain­ty sur­roun­ding the Nor­we­gi­an Post’s freight flights to Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Now the govern­ment is pro­vi­ding money to main­tain freight flight logi­stics, which of cour­se invol­ve more than just app­les and bana­nas. Howe­ver, it remains to be seen how this will be orga­nis­ed in the long term.

Emp­ty shel­ves in Sval­bard­bu­tik­ken (Coop Sval­bard) in Lon­gye­ar­by­en:
not unhe­ard of, but unde­si­red.

Low taxes

Sval­bard is and shall con­ti­nue to be a low-tax area. The back­ground to this lies in the Sval­bard Trea­ty; in short, Nor­way as a sta­te should not bene­fit from taxes and duties. The­r­e­fo­re, the­re is no VAT on Sval­bard and other taxes and duties are also often lower than on the main­land. This should gene­ral­ly stay as it is, but adjus­t­ments are pos­si­ble.

Housing and popu­la­ti­on

Things are likely to get much more exci­ting for many here. The govern­ment wants to free­ze the size of Lon­gye­ar­by­en at the level befo­re the dead­ly ava­lan­che on 19 Decem­ber 2015, and Lon­gye­ar­by­en should not grow bey­ond that. And the govern­ment wants the Nor­we­gi­an share of the popu­la­ti­on to increase.

House buil­ding in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. The impres­si­on that the town is gro­wing is wrong:
it is about repla­cing what has been lost sin­ce 2015.

Accor­ding to the Nor­we­gi­an Cen­tral Sta­tis­ti­cal Office (SSB), 2595 peo­p­le curr­ent­ly live in Lon­gye­ar­by­en and Ny-Åle­sund, inclu­ding 1621 Nor­we­gi­ans, i.e. around 63%. The lat­ter is not enough for the govern­ment. In fact, the pro­por­ti­on of Nor­we­gi­ans in the popu­la­ti­on has been fal­ling for years, which is part­ly due to the clo­sure of Nor­we­gi­an coal mines in Sveagru­va and Lon­gye­ar­by­en: In the­se well-paid and pre­vious­ly secu­re indus­tri­al jobs, a high pro­por­ti­on of the work­force was Nor­we­gi­an. The stra­tegy for­mu­la­ted in ear­lier Sval­bard stra­tegy papers of repla­cing mining with hig­her edu­ca­ti­on, rese­arch and tou­rism has pro­ved to be coun­ter­pro­duc­ti­ve from the government’s point of view, as the jobs in the­se are­as are much more inter­na­tio­nal than tho­se in mining. The govern­ment wants to take coun­ter­me­a­su­res here (com­ment: the rules that come into force on 1 Janu­ary 2025 should also be seen in this light; the poli­ti­cal dis­ap­point­ment over the rela­tively low Nor­we­gi­an share of the jobs crea­ted in tou­rism is likely to be at least as important as envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, which is pro­ba­b­ly more of a pre­text here). End of com­ment).

Housing poli­cy, which has long been a hot topic in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, which is cha­rac­te­ri­sed by a housing shorta­ge, has been a tool used by the govern­ment for a while now to increase the Nor­we­gi­an share of the total popu­la­ti­on: Even though the over­all sup­p­ly of housing is not expec­ted to exceed the 2015 level, the res­truc­tu­ring that ine­vi­ta­b­ly occur­red after the ava­lan­ches in 2015 and 2017 (over 100 flats were clas­si­fied as at risk of ava­lan­ches and accor­din­gly demo­lished) also pro­vi­des an oppor­tu­ni­ty to reor­ga­ni­se owner­ship. The pri­va­te housing mar­ket is being redu­ced and the pro­por­ti­on of sta­te-owned housing is gro­wing in favour of employees of lar­ge, direct­ly or indi­rect­ly state/public actors, whe­re the pro­por­ti­on of Nor­we­gi­an workers is hig­her than in the ser­vice sec­tor, for exam­p­le. The­se actors include Lokals­ty­re (muni­ci­pal admi­nis­tra­ti­on), Sys­sel­mes­ter, UNIS, Fol­kehøgs­ko­le (edu­ca­ti­on) and others.

In addi­ti­on, living in Lon­gye­ar­by­en should remain attrac­ti­ve, espe­ci­al­ly for the Nor­we­gi­an popu­la­ti­on. And the­re is litt­le doubt that the­re is need for action here, as the avera­ge length of stay in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, which is alre­a­dy cha­rac­te­ri­sed by a high level of fluc­tua­ti­on, is fal­ling.

Ener­gy

And what good is the nicest flat if the­re is no power from the socket and the hea­ting stays cold? It’s not that bad, but the sce­na­rio can­not be ruled out in the small town of Lon­gye­ar­by­en, who­se ener­gy sup­p­ly is cha­rac­te­ri­sed by the fact that it is not part of a supra-regio­nal grid. The sub­ject of ener­gy has long been a hot topic of dis­cus­sion in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. On the one hand, it is about the sharp rise in pri­ces for elec­tri­ci­ty and dis­trict hea­ting, but also about secu­ri­ty of sup­p­ly and whe­re ener­gy should come from in the long term. The days of coal as an ener­gy source in Lon­gye­ar­by­en are over and the cur­rent die­sel power plant fails to ful­fil all requi­re­ments in terms of secu­ri­ty of sup­p­ly, eco­no­mic effi­ci­en­cy and cli­ma­te neu­tra­li­ty. Today’s rea­li­ty is a far cry from the ear­lier idea of being a role model on an inter­na­tio­nal level; at the moment, peo­p­le are hap­py if the hea­ting is on during the cold months and the elec­tri­ci­ty is at least half­way afforda­ble, even if the govern­ment has to help out with money (sub­si­di­sed elec­tri­ci­ty pri­ces) and the mili­ta­ry with addi­tio­nal mobi­le gene­ra­tors.

Wha­te­ver the ener­gy sup­p­ly of the future looks like in Lon­gye­ar­by­en: The sta­te, repre­sen­ted local­ly by the mining com­pa­ny Store Nor­ske Spits­ber­gen Kul­kom­pa­ni, will play an incre­asing­ly important role.

Visi­tor fee

The govern­ment wants tou­rists to con­tri­bu­te a hig­her pro­por­ti­on of public inco­me via a visi­tor con­tri­bu­ti­on. This con­tri­bu­ti­on would amount to up to 5%, which would be added to hotel stays, for exam­p­le; ship pas­sen­gers could be char­ged a flat rate of 150 kro­ner, for exam­p­le. Such a sys­tem alre­a­dy exists on the Nor­we­gi­an main­land, whe­re the reve­nue goes enti­re­ly to the respec­ti­ve muni­ci­pa­li­ties. In Sval­bard, the sta­te wants to reser­ve the right to a por­ti­on of the reve­nue.

Sin­ce 2007, Sval­bard has had an ‘envi­ron­men­tal fee’ (mil­jø­ge­byr) of 150 kro­ner, which is included in flight tickets and paid by ships brin­ging pas­sen­gers to Sval­bard. This envi­ron­men­tal fee is admi­nis­te­red by the Sval­bard Mil­jø­vern­fond, to which anyo­ne in Lon­gye­ar­by­en can app­ly for finan­cial sup­port for pro­jects with an envi­ron­men­tal aspect. The envi­ron­men­tal fee is not part of the cur­rent dis­cus­sion, the visi­tor con­tri­bu­ti­on will come on top of it.

Until this hap­pens, the­re is cer­tain­ly need for fur­ther dis­cus­sion, for exam­p­le with regard to who bene­fits from the inco­me and what it can be used for.

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