Young Liberals of Norway () (NUV) is the youth league of the Norwegian political party Venstre. Young Liberals was founded on 27 January 1909, with Anders Kirkhusmo as the first president. The current president is Anne Solsvik, since 2007. Vice-Presidents are Sveinung Rotevatn and Haakon Riekeles, and the International Officer is Naomi Ichihara Røkkum. It advocates a more liberal version of the mother party's social liberalist ideology.

The Norwegian name 'Unge Venstre' has historical reasons, and although it literally translates as 'Young Left' in English, Young Liberals of Norway are not socialists, but in fact liberals. To avoid confusion, the official English-language name of the party is 'Young Liberals of Norway'. Proposals to change the name of Unge Venstre to 'Liberal Ungdom' ('Liberal Youth') have been defeated in successive congresses.

Young Liberals of Norway is a member of the international liberal youth organizations

• European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)
• International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY)
• Nordic Liberal and Radical Youth (NLRU).

They also co-operate especially with the Serbian liberal youth party GOS, and Mladi Liberali in Bosnia and Hercegovina.

Policies of Young Liberals of Norway

• The Young Liberals are strongly in favour of fighting climate change, calling it "the greatest threat of our time" on their website^[1]. As a result the Young Liberals are in favour of helping renewable energy become competitive through subsidies, but believe that the market rather than politicians should determine which technology is best^[2]. The Young Liberals oppose the construction gas powerstations without Carbon capture and storage, and opposes subsidies for polluting industries. The Young Liberals are also in favour of other types of environmental protection, such as hindering oil exploration of the coast of Lofoten due to the fragility of the environment.

• The Young Liberals are in favour of free trade, especially the removal of tariffs on the products of developing nations^[3]. This is seen as an integral part of achieving global economic justice rather than a threat to it.

• The Young Liberals are arguably the most pro-immigration political group in Norway, and advocate free labour immigration^[4]. The Young Liberals supports compulsory classes in Norwegian as a prerequisite for gaining citizenship^[5].

• The Young Liberals are in favour of Norwegian membership in the European Union^[6], and criticise the European Economic Area agreement as undemocratic because Norway is not represented when decisions regarding it are taken.

• The Young Liberals have recently become especially promninent in the debate on drug policy, and is calling for decriminalizing use of all narcotic substances, as well as legalizing marijuana. The party also advocates administering clean heroin to heavy abusers who have not succeeded in other means of rehabilitation. Also, the party stresses a need to spending more resources on rehabilitation and health care for abusers.

Relationship with Venstre

Young Liberals of Norway are independent of Venstre but co-operates closely with them, for example the leader of Young Liberals is automatically a member of the central governing body (Sentralstyret) of Venstre. Venstre and Young Liberals have different opinions on some matters, most prominently in that Young Liberals of Norway supports Norwegian entry into the European Union while Venstre opposes this. The Young Liberals of Norway failed to make Venstre pro-EU during Venstre's party congress in April 2009.

The Young Liberals are generally more liberal in their views than the mother party, both on social and economic issues. They aim to influence Venstre views so that they accords more with those of the Young Liberals. Notable recent victories include convincing Venstre to support heroin prescription in the treatment of addiction, and to support intellectual property reform, especially with regards to file sharing of music.

Leaders of Young Liberals of Norway

External links

• Website of Unge Venstre
• The Young Liberals of Norway

References

da:Unge Venstre de:Junge Liberale Norwegens no:Unge Venstre nn:Unge Venstre

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