Join the new world

Congratulations to all new congress members who were recently elected and confirmed for their seats. The Congress is the democratic assembly of eNorway, and while parts of the congressional work may seem apparent, there are a number of new things which may take some time to get the overview of. This article tries to explain how congress works, once you are elected.


Stortinget - where the elected representatives of Norway gather for
coffee, sandwiches and fist fights.

General information
As a congress member, one can move to other regions within the country. The only way to move abroad is to resign from congress first. Congress members are eligible to change their party affiliation during the congress period without losing their seat.

Make sure you read the law for congress members:
Lov §6 For medlemmer av kongressen

The approval of elections
On the 25th of each month, congress elections are held in all eRepublik countries. The elections of May 25, 2010 were the first one to be held under the new anti-cheating mechanisms which were implemented by the game administrators a short while before these elections. This means that there will always be a six-hour delay after voting has ended and until the new congress are officially approved. This allows the admins to run a check on accounts and voting patterns to see if multi-controlled accounts have been used to gain votes. In practice, this means that a congress member serves from 06:00 PST on the 26th of one month until 05:59 PST on the 26th of next month.

How to get involved with other congress members
Forums: The most important task you need to do as a Norwegian congress member is to register in the national forums, unless you have already done so. A large part of the debates between members of congress and the government takes place here. The forum administrators will add elected congress members to the appropriate group so that they can post in the congress threads, but this can only be done for registered users.
You find the national forums here: www.erepublik.no. It is very important to read Lovsamlingen which contains the national laws and procedures. A number of topics are also discussed and voted over in the congress forums, so make sure you step by and check for posts frequently.
IRC: You may also wish to participate on the #eNorge and #eNor_Kongress IRC channels (QuakeNet) to socialise and discuss topics. If you don't have an IRC client, you can use QuakeNet's webchat feature. Once there, you can join the restricted congress channel - the password can be obtained from the country president and found in the restricted sections of the national forums.
Newspaper: Using your private or your party's newspaper to communicate with the public is a good way to tell our nation about your views and performance as a congress member. Remember, there are always new elections coming up next month.

The country administration tools
Once the new congress is approved, each congress member gets access to his/her tools through the Administration tab on the country information page. You get to the country info page by either clicking on the country flag under your avatar picture on the left side of the screen or via the Country Administration link found in the My Places menu.


The congress tools are gathered under the Administration tab

The two main actions you can perform with the congress tools is to accept citizenship applications and submit/vote on law proposals.

Citizenship applications
Granting Norwegian citizenship to another eRepublikan means that this person can engage in the political life of eNorway, including starting political parties, run for congress and even become country president. Over time there has been many attempts to do political takeovers, both in our country and others, and many have succeeded. Each congress member is therefore required to do a background check and discuss a request in congress before approving citizenship.
In addition, each congress member gets only 1 citizenship pass to give away per term, so it's a question of using it wisely. You can find more information about this in the national forums.
To view requests and/or approve citizenships, go to the Society tab in the country information page and scroll down to find the link to view citizenship requests. You can also use the Propose a law menu under the Administration tab and click on the Provide Citizenship link to see the current requests. Unapproved requests will disappear after three days.

Law proposals
Each congress member can also make 2 law proposals during each congressional period. The various proposal topics as listed under the Propose a law menu under the Administration tab. Submitting proposals and voting on them, gives the congress member 1 experience point per vote.


Congress members can make two proposals per month

In eNorway, there is an established protocol that any proposals should be posted for discussion in the national forums at least 24 hours before being submitted in-game. Some also means that a forum poll should be performed first, but this view has come to vary lately. When making a proposal, it is expected that the submitter supplies a direct link in the Debate location field to the forum thread where the proposal has been discussed. Failing to do so will most likely lead to the proposal being rejected. The protocol also varies a bit depending on topic, se for instance under Donate below. If you are unsure, ask veteran congress or government members. These are the available law proposals for congress members:


New citizen fee: New citizen fee (currenty NOK 10) is the fee that every new player gets if he/she chooses Norway as the country when first registered. The fee is paid from the country treasury. The fee is not paid to those who are granted citizenship. They have already received the new citizen fee in the country they first registered in.


Donate: The country holds a treasury of gold, NOK and various amounts in other currencies. Periodically, or if an amount of local currency has been issued (see below), these funds needs to be transferred to the Bank of Norway, which is am organization owned by the government. The Ministry of Finance uses the bank to sell NOK and other currencies on the monetary market in exchange for gold which in turn can be transferred back to the country treasury to pay for constructions (hospital, defense system), mutual protection pacts (MPPs) and Declaration of War. Bank of Norway also takes care of the actual payouts to governmental bodies and others. Transactions are posted in the national forums. If the president or other government members don't have more proposals left during the current term, they may need to ask members of congress to help sumbit such transfer proposals in-game.


Issue Money: One can use gold to buy NOK in the monetary market. If the amount of NOK available decreases, the price in gold will go up. In order to keep the cost of currency down and ensure that there is enough affordable local currency available, new money can be issued from the country treasury. The amount of NOK printed will be paid by gold from the country treasury and will then need to be donated to Bank of Norway so that it can be sold on the monetary market. Normally this proposal will be made by the Minister of Finance or the President whenever the need rises.


Taxes: As a congress member you may propose a tax change for any industry. Except for raw materials, all industries have three tax types:

- Income tax: Calculated from the salary paid to the workers in the given industry. Example - 15% income tax: If a worker is paid NOK 10 per day, NOK 1.5 is paid directly from the company to the country treasury and NOK 8.5 is paid to the worker.

- Value added tax (VAT): Applies to all products except raw materials (oil, wood, diamonds, iron, grain). Calculated on top of the sales price.
Example: 5% VAT: If a company decides to price an item to NOK 10, the price offered in the marketplace will be NOK 10,50.

- Import tax: Calculated from the price including VAT set on goods delivered by foreign companies.
Example: 10% import tax: If a company in Finland buys a market license for Norway and sets the sales price of an item to be sold on the Norwegian market to NOK 10, and the VAT in Norway is 5%, the price offer on the marketplace for this item will be NOK 11,55.

Again, a reminder to discuss changes in taxes before proposing them, or they will just be rejected.


Minimum wage: The minimum wage (currently NOK 2) is the lowest amount a company owner can set a salary. Attempts to set a wage lower than the decided minimum wage will fail. This is typically the salary offered to new workers with zero skill within the field they work in. The higher skill workers get, the better salary they will be paid due to the competition on the job market.


President Impeachment: The elected president can be impeached by congress. But unlike the other proposals, who only require a simple majority, there is a need of 66% of the total votes given to remove a president from office. If a president is impeached, the second best candidate from the previous presidential elections becomes president by default. If an impeachment fails, a new impeachment proposal can not be made for 7 days.


Provide citizenship: This link isn't really a proposal, but leads you to the page of pending citizenships requests, as described above.


National chatroom: Chatrooms owned by the country can be proposed here. The in-game chatrooms have been used very little in eNorway, as IRC channels traditionally have been preferred for live chat.


Presidential proposals: In addition to proposals made by congress members, the country president can submit proposals for the congress to vote over. These are declaration of war (DoW), trading embargoes, mutual protection pacts (MPP), buying hospitals or defense systems for placement in regions.