Board | A dispute arose in the board about the amount of additional adjustments

Prime minister Petteri Orpon This week, the (kok) board has reached a consensus that special skilled workers in Finland with a work-based residence permit are allowed to stay in the country for six months of the end of their employment relationship before they have to leave the country.

At the same time, however, it became clear that the government parties' views on the amount of additional adjustments, i.e. cuts and possible tax increases, are very different.

The Treasury minister Riikka Purra (ps) told in the recent In an interview with MTV's Uutisextrathat the need for additional adjustments is up to three billion euros this election period.

Thus, the discussion in the government would take place during the spring budget rush, possibly already nine billion euros worth of adjustment measures during the election period.

“We do not have not discussed this within the government. The order of magnitude has been 500–1,000 million”, chairman of Rkp, Minister of Education Anna-Maja Henriksson tells Helsingin Sanomat.

“It feels like there's half a billion more every week,” he wonders at Purra's words.

Petteri Orpo estimates that the amount of adjustment in Ykkösaamu during the election period will be “in the order of 1.5 billion, in any case in the order of a billion”.

Henriksson tells HS that he is, in itself, “very happy” about the news that Prime Minister Orpon Yle told Ykkösaamu, according to which the government plans to change the recording of the government program related to the employment of immigrants.

“It's great that we have an agreement. I am happy that the four governing parties have come to an agreement on this important issue.”

HS reached Henriksson from Turku on Saturday an hour before the start of the Rkp's party council meeting.

The government according to the record, the immigrant must find a new job within three months of the end of the previous employment or leave the country.

Now the registration will be changed so that special skills can look for a new job for six months, Orpo said.

As you know, the matter had already been agreed upon at the beginning of the week among the ministers' assistants. According to HS's information, the chairmen of the governing parties have not met at the ministerial level regarding the issue in the past week.

Henriksson said in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat published earlier on Saturday that he would like the government to consider the three-month time limit still in the government program, which is related to work-based residence permits.

Did you know that the agreement regarding special abilities had already been made when you gave the HS interview on the subject?

“It can be said that certainty is usually when it is also established from a high level,” Henriksson answers.

The agreement made now only concerned the extension of the deadlines for so-called special experts.

Does Rkp still insist that the three-month deadline for other work-based residence permits must be extended?

“The main message is that I am very satisfied that the 4 government parties have reached an agreement on this important issue, but I want to keep the matter on the table when we discuss the big economic picture,” Henriksson replies.

The change in the big economic picture means, among other things, that Rkp has agreed on a six billion euro adjustment program in the government program.

Now, according to the calculations of the Ministry of Finance, the need for adaptation has increased. It means that the government program must be changed.

Henriksson's according to the report, the government will therefore be in a situation by the time of the framework dispute in the spring, where the guidelines of the government program will have to be re-examined, both in terms of the number of adjustments and other entries.

“We pretend that there will be an additional adjustment of three billion, but Rkp has started an adjustment of six billion. It won't be enough, even though it was difficult too.”

When the amount of adjustment has to be reassessed, at the same time we have to think about what means can accelerate economic growth, says Henriksson.

“Finland will not get out of this by saving alone.”

For one According to Henriksson, the board also raises the question of whether the compulsion to find a new job within three months endangers the planned investments in Finland.

“We need growth. The lack of talent means that people don't dare to invest here.”

“Who among us would want to go to work if there was a three-month rule in the country that you have to leave and take everything with you. It's humanly quite unreasonable,” says Henriksson.

According to him, the dismantling of the three-month rule alone is not a condition for Rkp to remain in the government.

“I would say that when all the issues that affect the creation of an agreement are on the table, one entry alone will not bring down the government. But growth must be brought to Finland.”

The Treasury minister Riikka Purra tells HS via text message that the government has negotiated several entries and presentations related to immigration at the same time.

According to Purra, the basic Finns have always been willing to negotiate with special experts, down to the “six-month detail”.

“Respectively compared to the government program, the so-called extortion for banning lane changes, when it is also extended to student permits in relation to the asylum decision. Additional restrictions were also applied to the exceptional provisions of the residence time requirements of the Citizenship Act as part of the whole,” writes Purra.

Banning lane changes can make it easier to deport people who meet the conditions for work-based immigration.

In his message, Purra also draws attention to the fact that “immigration to Finland has grown enormously, especially with family members, low-wage workers and people coming to universities of applied sciences”.

“The only thing that doesn't grow are special experts, which tells about Finland's poor attractiveness among the right experts,” Purra assessed in his message.