Stalled budget negotiations to resume today (Aftenposten)

"We have been invited to play the role of house sparrows and have been offered nothing more than crumbs from the Government’s table," said Siv Jensen, the Progress Party’s chief negotiator. According to Ms Jensen there has been no progress in the budget negotiations with the coalition partners, and she said she was both annoyed and disappointed that the negotiations had broken down yesterday afternoon. But Jan Tore Sanner (Con), the Government’s chief negotiator, had a completely different slant on the situation. He said he regretted the Progress Party’s walk-out, adding that the Government had moved to accommodate the Progress Party on a number of issues, though he was unwilling to comment on the specific proposals.

Government remains cool in face of Progress Party walk-out (Dagsavisen)

The Government is remaining cool despite the breakdown of negotiations with the Progress Party over the budget. According to the coalition partners, the Progress Party’s walk-out is no more than an exercise in political grandstanding. "It is fairly normal to have to go a few rounds before we arrive at an agreement. What is positive is that our people tell us that the negotiating climate has been good," said Jon Lilletun, leader of the Christian Democrats’ parliamentary group. One of the reasons the government negotiators are so calm is that Carl I. Hagen more or less promised to secure a parliamentary majority for the Government’s first budget when he helped the coalition partners into power.

Hagen steals the show (Dagbladet)

Siv Jensen has completed her warm-up act, and now it is Carl I. Hagen’s turn to take centre stage in order to wring as many budget concessions as possible out of the Government. "The first phase in the Progress Party’s strategy has been accomplished. The next phase is to lift the negotiations up to the level of the parties’ parliamentary leaders. But in the end it is only Kjell Magne Bondevik who can satisfy Carl I. Hagen’s craving for the spotlight. This whole process is therefore a well-choreographed, three-act drama, conceived for maximum theatrical effect," said a centrally-placed source on the Government’s negotiating team.

Business leaders slam cut in regional development fund (Nationen)

The Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO), the Confederation of Norwegian Commercial and Service Enterprises (HSH) and the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises have all reacted strongly to the Government’s proposed cut in the Norwegian Industrial and Regional Development Fund (SND). Norway’s largest and most important employers’ organizations have jumped to the SND’s defence. "Businesses will be left with fewer resources, but without the restructuring of the country’s industrial policy which we have been demanding," said Tor Steig, chief economist at the NHO.

Petroleum Fund invests in cluster bombs (Dagbladet)

The Government Petroleum Fund has invested NOK 146 million in the company that produces the controversial cluster bombs which the USA has been dropping on Afghanistan. This has been revealed just months after the Storting instructed the Government to work towards an international ban on this kind of bomb, because they are extremely inaccurate and as a result cause enormous civilian losses. "The Government has so far refused to impose ethical guidelines on the Petroleum Fund. This case should leave no doubt about why such guidelines should be put in place," said Øystein Djupedal, economic policy spokesman for the Socialist Left Party.

Pay bonanza expected next year (Aftenposten)

Norwegian employees can look forward to next year. In the past decade no Norwegian finance minister has promised so much extra spending money as Per-Kristian Foss. The Government expects average salaries will rise by 4.25 per cent in 2002, while prices will increase by just 1.5 per cent. The Finance Ministry’s estimate for net wage increases is usually on the conservative side. In all probability therefore, the result of next year’s wage negotiations will be greater still – possibly even bigger than the bonanza year of 1998.

Salmon sales plummet (Dagens Næringsliv)

The value of fresh salmon exports to the EU has plummeted by NOK 1.3 billion in the past year, primarily due to a fall in prices. To save the industry from crisis Norway must negotiate a better deal with the EU. This is the dramatic backdrop to the meeting between Norway and the Norwegian salmon farming industry on the one side and the European Commission on the other.

Worth Noting

• The Finance Ministry has calculated that the Government will give Norway’s 84 richest people a dizzying NOK 1.7 billion each in tax relief next year. This is in stark contrast to Prime Minister Bondevik’s wish for his government to be remembered for having helped the country’s poorest citizens. (Verdens Gang)
• Stressed-out parents could become a new focus area for security services provider, Falken. The company has already started to evaluate a scheme to care for sick children while their parents are at work. (Dagsavisen)
• The Norwegian Air Traffic Controllers’ Association is calling for the retirement age for air traffic controllers to be reduced from 65 to 60. Norway is one of three countries worldwide with the highest retirement age for air traffic controllers. (NTB)
• If women had worked as much as men, it would have resulted in almost 400,000 man-years of employment, according to a recent report from the Directorate of Labour. (Aftenposten)
• The majority of the Christian Democratic Party’s county chairmen are in favour of allowing homosexuals living in a stable relationship to take elected offices within the party. 10 out of 16 county chairmen believe there should be room within the party for individuals living in a homosexual partnership. (Vårt Land)
• So far this year 164 flight attendants and employees at Gardermoen Airport have been fined or had charges brought against them by customs officers. Eight were found in possession of narcotics, including a flight attendant with marihuana concealed in the knot of his tie. (Verdens Gang)
• Cruise passengers arriving in Svalbard next summer will be offered a new holiday activity. They can help clean up the beaches which are the last resting place for far too much of the refuse and litter which is carried north by the Gulf Stream. Tour operators have responded positively to the Svalbard District Governor’s suggestion, and expect tourists to welcome the opportunity to take part in the clean-up operation. (Aftenposten)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

It was unnecessarily provocative of the Government to include in its amended national budget for next year a proposal to cut agricultural subsidies by NOK 300 million. An agricultural agreement is supposed to be the outcome of free negotiations between the state and representatives from the agricultural sector. But the negotiating climate is bound to sour when the farmers’ organizations feel from the outset that the negotiations are anything but free. Reactions were indeed swift in coming. At a time when there is a good chance that many sections of society will see a real increase in their salaries, the authorities cannot expect farmers to sit idly by and watch their own incomes stand still or even fall because their operating costs are increasing more than prices and subsidies. There is a limit to how responsible it is, both from a socio-economic point of view and from the point of view of the consumer, to use increased food prices as the main tool for ensuring farmers’ earnings do not fall behind other income groups.