prime minister Sanna Marin (SDP) announced Thursday afternoon that the governing parties have reached an agreement on climate and employment issues, allowing a budget of nearly โฌ 65 billion to be adopted next year. It includes a deficit of almost seven billion euros, which is lower than this year.
According to Marin, the government has adopted the necessary measures to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035 in accordance with its program. He said decisions have been made that will lead to an 11-megaton emission reduction in the coming years.
In total, emissions are set to be reduced by 14-15 megatonnes by 2035.
Next yearโs budget will support this change by funding investment in sustainable energy, research, development and innovation. The government is also planning investments in employment services and digitalisation.
The Prime Minister said that investments are also being made to improve the availability of skilled labor, including from abroad.
The migration of skilled workers needs to be accelerated by extending the two-week rapid electronic residence permit applications to experts and start-ups.
The government will extend the national D visa to researchers, students and their families. The national D visa is based on the Schengen Convention and allows individuals to reside in the issuing country for a maximum of one year.
Marin said the government is planning employment investments to address labor shortages and matching people to jobs.
Expert assessment of decisive climate measures for the Greens
According to the Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo (Greens), It is important for the Greens to look at the climate package together with independent scientists and experts. This is important for the credibility of the package.
Ohisalo said that the government is committed to making the necessary additional decisions to ensure that Finland is on its way to carbon neutrality in 2035 in accordance with the government’s program.
Chairman of the Left Alliance and Minister of Education Li Andersson said that Finland will come "the worldโs first carbon-neutral welfare state".
Ohisalo said the government will make a study next March as part of a compromise agreement on whether the agreed emissions reduction measures are sufficient to meet the 2035 target, based on climate change panel, ministries and research analyzes of institutes – or whether more is needed.
Mining tax, more funding for the police
The legislation increases the obligation for each municipality and region to draw up a climate plan.
"Emissions from agriculture will be reduced, for example, by increasing the cultivation of wetlands. Next year, taxes on heat pumps will be reduced. We will implement at least one offshore wind power demo project and finance the circular economy, support household energy improvements, and phase out oil heating. A total of half a billion euros is spent on Finland’s climate measures in the budget," he said.
Ohisalo said the purchase tax for electric cars will be waived, but user fees for new electric vehicles will be increased.
Ohisalo said that from the beginning of 2023, a mining tax will be introduced in Finland. A new mining law will be presented to Parliament this year.
The interior minister said police budgets will be raised next year.
Ohisalo added that the government is preparing to increase the number of quota refugees this year due to the situation in Afghanistan. The annual quota is now 1,050 refugees.
Archipelago: Employment target close to achievement
The Treasury minister Annika Saarikko (Cen) said the government’s employment target is relatively close to being achieved.
The budget is โฌ 64.8 billion and the deficit is โฌ 6.9 billion in 2022. Thatโs almost โฌ 5 billion less than this year. It will raise government debt to about 146 billion euros next year.
Buying new fighters will increase the deficit by about one and a half billion euros, he said.
The Ministry of Finance had to take into account almost โฌ 1 billion in unforeseen additional costs, such as pandemic costs and funding, to prepare sote health and social services reform.
According to Saarikko, public finances are in balance if Finland achieves an average economic growth of 2.25 per cent and an employment rate of 78 per cent.
Source: The Nordic Page