Big cuts in block grant from Denmark

Denmark’s government subsidy to the Faroes, the block grant, has been a contentious issue in the Faroes for as long as anyone can remember.

Unionists welcome this grant; republicans not so much.

The unionist party, Sambandsflokkurin, is in the opposition, while the republicans, Tjóðveldi, are in government.

Like Tjóðveldi, fellow government party Framsókn (liberal party) wanted to reduce the block grant as one of its main election pledges.

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This wish seems to have come true as the Danish 2023 state budget proposal shows that the block grant to the Faroes has been cut by DKK 25 million this year.

Danish and Faroese authorities agreed in 2019 that the block grant for 2020 should be DKK 641.8 million and that subsequent block grants would be decided annually unless otherwise specified.

This agreement has now changed and the plan is to cut a total of DKK 100 million from the block grant over the next four years.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.