On 20th of November demonstration against the passing of the Services Directive took place in front of the Norwegian Parliament. The Labour Party decided last week that they don’t want to use the right of reservation in the EEA agreement against the Services Directive. The other two government parties, the Centre Party and the Socialist Left party, voted against the passing of this directive. The Norwegian labour union (LO) demanded several guarantees from the government to support the passing of the directive, for instance that existing and future measures to prevent social dumping would be protected. The prime minister claimed this can be guaranteed, but as we all know the future content of the services directive will be decided by the ECJ.

Almost 900 Labour Party members and labour union members have signed a social democratic petition against the passing of the directive.

250 people outside the Norwegian parliament, several political parties represented, Youth against the EU hosted it. Central board member of the Norwegian Social Democrat Youth party (AUF), Stine Renate Håheim, and Boye Ullmann from one of our labour unions, made short speeches. There were other demonstrations in eight cities around Norway. We asked the government not to pass the directive after all, and a man dressed as a priest followed by a mock funeral possession buried Norwegian labour rights.