General News and Information for the Norwegian Royal Family: 2003 -

[carlota]

i heard reports last week about this imminent attack... how come they are only taking action by closing the palace and 'hiding' the royals only now? i wonder if they have received more evidence to support a potential attack...

haakon will still travel to New York to be part of Nexus Global Youth Summit at the UN, it seems.

[fortimo]

If I understand it correctly, than Sonja, ML and MM are/were in Ålesund. (MM have a shorter hair on the photo?)

"Queen Sonja, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Princess Märtha Louise been Sunnmøre since Tuesday.
The royal will, among other enjoyed a stay in the spa area at Union Geiranger and had a lunch visit with artist Opdahl on Godøya."

Dronning Sonja fikk fikset sveisen -smp.no
https://translate.google.hu/translat...ece&edit-text=

[maria antonietta]

It is not Mette-Marit, dear Fortimo.

[fortimo]

Programs of the royalfamily after Easter-holiday:
Skal besøke disse stedene i Finnmark for første gang - NRK - Finnmark
https://translate.google.hu/translat...984&edit-text=

[ROYAL NORWAY]

Kongehuset endrer gavepolitikken | ABC Nyheter

The monarchy is changing its gift policy.

The royal family will no longer accept private gifts from commercial operators. The decision, which has not been disclosed until now, was taken in March 2015, the palace said.

''We try to make it clear so that we don't get bindings to some'', King Harald told NRK.

- There is a long tradition of gifts to the royal family. Our royal family often receive gifts from people and hosts when traveling around the country and in connection with anniversaries. This has been appreciated, according to a press release from the Royal Palace.

The society is changing in this area, and we change with society. We have gone through the practice of receiving gifts, and to remove any doubt of unfortunate bonds, we now have adopted a new and clear guideline for gifts to the royals, the palace said.

The royal family will continue to accept gifts in official contexts because it's mainly in full openness with the press present. Other gifts are sent to the Royal Palace. Private donations from commercial players are returned to the donor.

The TV news is full of it, and the experts thinks as me that it's a good idea.

[fortimo]

Originally Posted by ROYAL NORWAY

Kongehuset endrer gavepolitikken | ABC Nyheter


The TV news is full of it, and the experts thinks as me that it's a good idea.

Interesting... When was the big scandal with Mette-Marit and the designer-clothes, she received as gifts... ?
It is a good idea, but why don't they give them for organisatons or poor people or something similar. I remember, I read somewhere, that the Cambridges gave their wedding gifts for organisations, or sell them and the money was given for good cases.

Here is the list, what did the Royal Family receive from 01. Juni - 31. December 2015:
https://translate.google.com/transla...939&edit-text=
http://www.kongehuset.no/binfil/down...php?tid=134578

[polyesco]

a few more articles on the gift accepting policy. they mention last year's vacation by the Crown Prince family on a luxury yacht
Kong Harald til NRK: - Vil ikke lenger ta imot gaver fra kommersielle aktører - Kjendis
Mette-Marit får ikke lenger gratis luksuskjoler - Kongehuset - VG
Kongehuset vil ikke lenger ta i mot gaver fra kommersielle aktører - Aftenposten

[fortimo]

It seems King Harald spends his birthday and holiday abroad with the Queen and friends. Nobody has events in the calendar til 29. Februar, so assume the whole royal family are together somewhere.

Kong Harald fyller 79 år - Kongehuset - VG
https://translate.google.hu/translat...%2F&edit-text=

http://www.seher.no/royal/i-dag-har-...-bursdag-84936
https://translate.google.hu/translat...936&edit-text=

http://www.tv2.no/a/8058756
https://translate.google.hu/translat...756&edit-text=

http://blogg.tv2.no/kongebloggen/?_g...673.1451130312
https://translate.google.hu/translat...312&edit-text=

[Muhler]

I fear this is going to need a thread of its own.

S? mye koster egentlig kongehuset. Se de skjulte utgiftene - nyheter - Dagbladet.no

Royalt norsk chok: Holder tal hemmelige - så dyrt er kongehuset i virkeligheden

The public figures for the NRF has for year been stated as between 200-300 million kroner, which is quite cheap.
It now turns out that this total is way below the real figure.
The reason is that a number of expenses have not been listed as being a part of total upkeep of the NRF, but been including among general figures within individual ministries.

The official figures so far have been stated at around 230-240 million kroner, which is roughly 24.8 million €.
The newspaper Dagbladet has looked at expenses not listed under NRF. Like the royal yacht (the Ministry of Defence), official trips abroad and expenses regarding the maintenance of quite a few royal properties.
The paper has also estimated the otherwise secret figure for security.

Their estimate is at around 460 million kroner or around 48.6 million €.
Even if you detract security, which other royal houses tend not to include either (some 110 million kroner) you end up with a figure of some 350 million kroner. That is some 125 million kroner, that have been listed elsewhere. Or 13.2 million €.

Even so the paper estimate the costs for the NRF has gone up some 37 % over the last six years.

- The figures for the NRF are of course debatable. But even more debatable is how and why the Ministry of Finance has put its estimate so way off the actual figures.
You need not be a prophet to know that there is going to be a lot more of this in the weeks to come! - And that is going to rub off on the other Scandinavian royal families. Perhaps the Dutch as well. Where there will also be calls to have a closer view on hidden figures.
I don't know about the SRF, but the official figures for the DRF are stated at around 450 million DKK or 60.4 million €, everything included. I.e palaces, guards battalion, royal yacht and so on, but not security, that figure is also secret in DK.

[polyesco]

interesting.
its incredible that they did not include their expenses for official trips abroad and maintenance of buildings.

[Muhler]

Kongehuset: - D?rlige vurderinger er avdekket - nyheter - Dagbladet.no

The NRF court says in a statement on its webpage that the "financial process" the court has been through over the past fifteen years, where the expenses has exploded, has been "educational" and that the court believe that they overall have " a very good grip of things". There are however a number of details that could be done better and a few clarifications are needed in regards as to who actually owns or is in disposition over particular residences, either owned by the state to be used by the NRF or owned directly by the NRF. Such info has for security reasons been withheld previously and as such don't figure on the official list of expenses.

- More interesting IMO is that the CP couple's staff has increased from 16 in 2003 to 153 in 2016!
In other words the NRF de facto has two full-size courts!

For comparison, (because I don't know the other royal families details off hand) the total number of employees in the DRF is around 130.

Not only that but the average salary increase in Norway for the period 2002-2014 was 61 %, at the NRF courts the the increase is 70 %.

- Looking at this it smells to me like the NRF courts are not out of control, economically speaking, but rather is outside political restraints. In other words: the civil servants have taken over and left to their own devises, they spend a lot of money!

[eya]

Thanks Muhler!!!

153 the CP couple's stuf? Really? What they are doing?

http://www.thelocal.no/20161213/man-...-royals-and-pm

[Muhler]

I was thinking the same thing.

[polyesco]

[QUOTE=Muhler;1877037]
- More interesting IMO is that the CP couple's staff has increased from 16 in 2003 to 153 in 2016!
In other words the NRF de facto has two full-size courts!

For comparison, (because I don't know the other royal families details off hand) the total number of employees in the DRF is around 130.

/QUOTE]

this is very surprising. 153 staff just for the CP family?

[tommy100]

The Prince of Wales employs the equivalent of 161 full time people, that includes 135 who support Charles, Camilla, William & Kate and Harry and 26 who are personal staff (I guess dressers and valets)

The Royal Household of the UK has a staff of 426 (not including those of the Prince of Wales & his family)

The Swedish Royal Court (all of it including the Crown Couple's staff) totals 203

The cour grand-ducale of Luxembourg has a staff of around 100


I'm just putting these to compare against.


I have to say I'm personally very surprised the the CP family of Norway would have a staff of 153. Whats happened in 13 years to mean their staff have increased over 9 times?

It seems perhaps, that the RF have got away with not having to be as accountable as people thought.

[ROYAL NORWAY]

Originally Posted by Muhler

The newspaper Dagbladet has looked at expenses not listed under NRF. Like the royal yacht (the Ministry of Defence), official trips abroad and expenses regarding the maintenance of quite a few royal properties.
The paper has also estimated the otherwise secret figure for security.

We already knew that there were expenses not listed under NRF - they have been discussed in TV debates several times over the last 20 years and I mentioned it in another thread last year, but we didn't knew the exact sums.

Originally Posted by Muhler

- More interesting IMO is that the CP couple's staff has increased from 16 in 2003 to 153 in 2016!
In other words the NRF de facto has two full-size courts!

For comparison, (because I don't know the other royal families details off hand) the total number of employees in the DRF is around 130.

This is wrong. The Royal Court increased from 136 to 153 employees between 2002/2014. 20 of these are the CP couple's staff.

This is Dagbladet - Norway's version of the Daily Star, and must be taken with a large pinch of salt. This is just one of their many factual/writing errors.

This is from their article, which you posted in post 17.

The Crown Prince Couple's staff

The staff consists of approximately 20 people and consists of everything from child care to Crown Princess Mette-Marit's personal adviser Ole Edvard Wold-Reitan. A grant of 18.8 million was given to the staff this year.

From the Royal Court today:
kongehuset.no - Utdypende om kostnadsutviklingen
Translated by me:

Further details about the cost

Dagbladet presents April 3, 2016 figures for the cost of the monarchy. We wants to explain certain aspects of cost.

Dagbladet writes that the salaries of the court have doubled since 2002. This is correct. The overall wage of developments in Norway during the period 2002-2014 has been 61 per cent, while wage growth in the court during the same period has been 70 percent. This is mainly due to two factors:

Firstly, there has been a change of tasks and development of expertise in the court. Secondly, the number of employees in the court increased from 136 to 153. A significant explanation for it is the structure of Crown Prince Couple's staff.

The accumulation of the Crown Prince Couple's staff

Crown Prince Couple were newlyweds 2002, they lived and studied in London. Skaugum was not in use. In 2003, they moved back to Norway. In the following years they built up a professional staff and 11 persons were hired to help them in their official work and with Skaugum as official residence. As a result of this development, the grant to the Crown Prince Couple's staff has doubled.

Developments in appanage

The Crown Prince Couple's appanage has naturally also doubled since 2002. In 2002 the appanage was at NOK 2.5 million and in 2003 it increased to NOK 4.7 million. When they moved into Skaugum in 2003 there was an urgent need to upgrade the building. The two significant measures were replacing piping, and sprinkler systems and fire-doors. The authorities decided to increase the annual appanage of 2 million to interest and principal on a rehabilitation loan on Skaugum, because the state dosen't provides a residence for the heir. The Crown Prince Couple paid for the renovation of the private apartment at Skaugum with private funds. After this the appanage increased roughly with inflation each year. The exceptions are 2007 and 2010 where the appanages of the King/Queen and The Crown Prince Couple was lifted as a result of developments in the management, maintenance and development of property.

We hope this can contribute to greater insight into the question of cost.

04/05/2016

[Muhler]

Thanks Royal Norway I'm glad someone with a better overall knowledge of the NRF are explaining things.
And thanks Tommy100 as well, that figure makes sense.

And a CP-staff of around 20 sounds a lot more realistic and in line with what similar royals have.

Comparable to Daily Star? That means very left wing, right?

However, what about the calculations Dagbladet made? Unless I got it completely wrong the de facto costs of the NRF are indeed considerably higher than the listed costs.

[ROYAL NORWAY]

Originally Posted by Muhler

Thanks Royal Norway I'm glad someone with a better overall knowledge of the NRF are explaining things.
And thanks Tommy100 as well, that figure makes sense.

And a CP-staff of around 20 sounds a lot more realistic and in line with what similar royals have.

Comparable to Daily Star? That means very left wing, right?

However, what about the calculations Dagbladet made? Unless I got it completely wrong the de facto costs of the NRF are indeed considerably higher than the listed costs.

I have informed Dagbladet about the error and now they have changed it to another error. They now writes that the staff at the court grew from 16 to 153, which is incorrect. The Court increased from 136 to 153 employees between 2002/2014.

Look at it:

Originally Posted by Muhler

Kongehuset: - D?rlige vurderinger er avdekket - nyheter - Dagbladet.no

Dagbladet is a gossip newspaper that no one takes seriously here, and they have struggled economically in recent years. They've been after the monarchy for 40 years. They have a story about the royals today too. This time it is the Crown Prince.

And as I said in my above post: We already knew that there were expenses not listed under the NRF - they have been discussed in TV debates several times over the last 20 years and I mentioned it in another thread last year, but we didn't knew the exact sums. I actually thought it was even higher.

[Muhler]

I see. Thank you.

Considering the prices in Norway and therefore the corresponding salaries that constitutes the largest expense in the NRF household, a cost of only some 230 million kroner did indeed sound very low!
Some 450 million, not counting the lifeguard details is still a fair price IMO.

[ROYAL NORWAY]

I spoke with a friend who works there, and now they have corrected it.