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Oslo in bid to allow shops to open on Sunday 

Oslo City Council will seek permission from the State Administrator to allow shops to open on Sundays.

Published: 28 February 2024 10:48 CET
Pictured is a street in Oslo's Grunneløkka district that is full of shops and bars.
Oslo's city council wants to allow stores to open on Sunday. Pictured is a street in Oslo's Grunneløkka district that is full of shops and bars. Photo by Transly Translation Agency on Unsplash

The right-wing bloc that leads Oslo City Council will submit an application to the State Administrator to allow shops in the Norwegian capital to open on Sundays. 

“We want to make Oslo even more vibrant,” culture and industry councillor Anita Leirvik North said. 

“Giving shops in Oslo the opportunity to stay open on a Sunday can contribute to this,” she added. 

According to the law, shops must be closed on Sundays, public holidays, and after 4pm on Christmas, Easter, and Whitsunday.

Some exceptions include convenience stores with a total sales area of ​​up to 100 square meters and gas stations with a total sales area of ​​up to 150 square meters.

Bars, restaurants, art galleries, temporary exhibitions, and trade fairs are typically allowed to remain open. 

READ MORE: Why is everything in Norway closed on Sundays?

Another exception is for stores in a “typical tourist destination”. Around one in three Norwegian municipalities has this status. 

Oslo’s city council will apply for this exception. This exception would also only apply to certain parts of the city, rather than the entire municipality.

Under the law, a “typical tourist destination” is one where the sales on Sundays are mainly made to tourists or non-residents of the municipality.

The last time a right-wing bloc was on the city council in Oslo, it also made several unsuccessful attempts to get the State Administrator to grant permission for stores to remain open. 

“I think it is strange not to define Oslo as a tourist city,” North said. 

The city council was still deciding which areas could potentially be exempt from the Sunday trading laws, according to public broadcaster NRK. 

Union leader for retail workers Christopher Beckham told NRK that Sunday trading laws wouldn’t necessarily appeal to workers. 

“If we open for Sunday trading, it will be more difficult for the employees to combine working life with family and leisure,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the Oslo Business Association (Oslo Handelsstands Forening/OFH) said that opinion was divided among its members. 

Oslo City Council will need to secure a majority vote for the proposal to send the proposals to the State Administrator.  

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POLITICS

Norway to quadruple aid to Palestinians amidst famine fears

The Norwegian government Tuesday proposed 1 billion kroner ($92.5 million) in aid to Palestinians this year as humanitarian agencies warn of a looming famine in the Gaza Strip.

Published: 14 May 2024 14:48 CEST
Norway to quadruple aid to Palestinians amidst famine fears

Figures in the revised budget presented on Tuesday, show a roughly quadrupling of the 258 million kroner provided in the initial finance bill adopted last year.

“The urgent need of aid in Gaza is enormous after seven months of war,” Norway’s Minister of International Development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, said in a statement.

“The food situation in particular is critical and there is a risk of famine,” she added, criticising “an entirely man-made crisis” and an equally “critical” situation in the West Bank.

According to the draft budget, Norway intends to dedicate 0.98 percent of its gross national income to development aid this year.

The figures are still subject to change because the centre-left government, a minority in parliament, has to negotiate with other parties to get the texts adopted.

For his part, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide again warned Israel against a large-scale military operation in Rafah, a city on the southern edge of the besieged Gaza Strip.

“It would be catastrophic for the population. Providing life-saving humanitarian support would become much more difficult and more dangerous,” Barth Eide said.

He added: “The more than 1 million who have sought refuge in Rafah have already fled multiple times from famine, death and horror. They are now being told to move again, but no place in Gaza is safe.”

As part of the response to the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7th, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is determined to launch an operation in Rafah, which he considers to be the last major stronghold of the militant organisation.

Many in Rafah have been displaced multiple times during the war, and are now heading back north after Israeli forces called for the evacuation of the city’s eastern part.

On May 7th, Israeli tanks and troops entered the city’s east sending desperate Palestinians to flee north.

According to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), “almost 450,000” people have been displaced from Rafah since May 6th.

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