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The parliamentary groups of both the Progress and the Labor Party held meetings on Wednesday in which they decided to join the proposal to request a legal assessment from the Supreme Court.
At the same time, NTB receives confirmation that the Center Party also supports the initiative.
– We support all proposals that can help inform the case, says Parliamentary leader Marit Arnstad.
Show that the party is really useful, cheers SV party leader Audun Lysbakken.
– This case is winnable, Norwegian railways must belong to the Norwegian people. We are happy that the rest of the opposition agrees with us on that, he says.
Paragraph 83
SV’s proposal has been to implement Article 83 of the Constitution, which states that the Storting can obtain reports from the Supreme Court on legal issues.
This will be the first time since 1945 that the Storting has implemented this section.
The backdrop is a concern among various parties to the Storting that the rail reform could transfer authority to the EU unconstitutionally. The opposition will now ask the Supreme Court to consider the issue.
In principle, the Storting will take a position on the EU package in mid-November.
– We will now ask the Supreme Court to investigate how much power this package transfers to the EU. Now that a debate has arisen around this, we want to take the opportunity of Article 83 of the Constitution to ask the Supreme Court about this, says transport policy spokesman Bård Hoksrud in Frp.
However, it emphasizes that FRP is the core of the package, that is, more competition on the rail.
Politically inflamed
In the EU, the fourth railway package was adopted as early as 2016. What the Storting will decide now is whether it should be incorporated into the EEA agreement or not.
The reform of the EU implies, among other things, stricter requirements to put the train service out of competition, which has caused the Norwegian left to become inflamed strongly.
The Labor Party, the Center Party, the Socialist People’s Party, the MDGs and the Red Party have signaled that they will say no.
– We are against the content of the package. We already clarified this in 2018, says Labor Party transport policy spokesperson Sverre Myrli.
You think paragraph 83 is now a constructive way forward.
Challenge the topillary structure
An important part of the background is that the reform also challenges the so-called two-pillar structure of the EEA agreement by transferring authority directly to the EU.
The top structure means that the EFTA countries Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein will have their own control system through the EFTA Surveillance Authority Esa in Brussels and the EFTA Court in Luxembourg.
But in the fourth railway package, this model is abandoned. Instead, the EU rail agency ERA, based in French Valenciennes, is expected to have the authority to make decisions directly against players in Norway.
At the same time, the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg will be the body of appeal.
Therefore, power is transferred to an agency where Norway does not have the right to vote and to a court where Norway does not have judges.
This is what is now leading the opposition to withdraw the Constitution and the Supreme Court.
