Labour: Don’t blame the Progress Party (Aftenposten)

The Labour Party says that the Government itself must take responsibility for its failure to gain parliamentary support for its budget proposal, instead of blaming the Progress Party. Labour’s economic policy spokeswoman and deputy leader of the party, Hill-Marta Solberg, has attacked the Government for doing too little to secure a parliamentary majority for next year’s national budget.

Bondevik gambles with Government’s future (Dagbladet)

For the first time in history a national budget will be pushed through on a vote of confidence in the Government. On Wednesday Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik must put his Government’s future on the line in order to secure a parliamentary majority for his budget proposal. In so doing he will force Carl I. Hagen and the Progress Party to accept the budget’s overall framework. This appears to be the likely result of the Finance Committee’s recommendation to the Storting, which it delivered yesterday. None of the Government’s proposals has gained majority backing in Committee.

Last minute budget solution likely (Dagsavisen)

Jon Lilletun, leader of the Christian Democrats’ parliamentary group, believes that a last minute solution to the budget conflict with the Progress Party will be found. He hopes that a ‘situation’ will arise during next week’s finance debate. Mr Lilletun believes that all the parties represented in the Storting have a joint responsibility to give the country a proper budget. Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen has indicated the party may join forces with the Labour Party and the Socialist Left Party on key budget items. This could mean the Government will not win a majority for a number of important issues, such as approval to sell off state-owned businesses and the proposal to exclude the additional cash benefit for children under three when calculating means-tested social security benefits.

Sponheim proposes farms be turned into limited companies (Aftenposten)

Farmers should form limited companies, according to Agriculture Minister Lars Sponheim. He wants to change the way farm subsidies are allocated to encourage new organizational structures in the agricultural sector. Farming cooperation should pay, says Mr Sponheim. Today he will be sending out a consultation paper which proposes wide-ranging changes in agricultural production subsidies.

Petersen accepts military courts (Dagsavisen)

While Liberal and Christian Democrat coalition partners do not feel Norway can accept the USA’s decision to use military courts to try terrorist suspects, Foreign Minister Jan Petersen (Con) is refusing to comment. The Foreign Minister believes the US plan to make use of American military courts to try terrorists is an internal US matter. Trine Skei Grande, leader of the Liberal Party’s parliamentary group, says that Norway cannot accept the use of military courts, and feels Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik (Christian Democrat) should raise the issue with President George W. Bush when the two meet in Washington on 5 December.

Norway pledges troops to EU (Aftenposten)

Norway yesterday offered to contribute both military personnel and police officers to an EU-led rapid deployment force. However, Defence Minister Kristin Krohn Devold remains sceptical about the EU’s ability to have such a force ready for deployment before the end of 2003. Norway’s contribution was announced during a series of contact meetings in Brussels yesterday between the EU, new applicants for membership and Nato countries outside the EU area – such as Iceland and Norway. In addition to the Defence Minister, the Norwegian delegation included Justice Minister Odd Einar Dørum and Kim Traavik, State Secretary at the Foreign Ministry.

Bondevik turns to environment experts from Bellona (Aftenposten)

Petroleum and Energy Minister Einar Steensnæs has drafted in help from Bellona, the independent environmental foundation, to speed up the development of carbon-free gas-fired power stations. Yesterday afternoon it became clear that Bellona’s energy expert, Thomas Palm, is to join the Energy Ministry to implement the coalition government’s plans for emission-free gas-fired power stations. This appointment brings to two the number of high-profile environmental activists with roots in Bellona which in the past week have become advisers to the new Bondevik government. Last week Agriculture Minister Lars Sponheim brought in Alvhild Hedstein as a political adviser. She was previously one of Bellona’s leading specialists and was responsible for handling a number of controversial issues on behalf of the environmental foundation.

Røkke back on top at Kværner (Aftenposten)

Kjell Inge Røkke now owns between 22 and 25 per cent of Kværner. He is once again the company’s largest shareholder, and can single-handedly block the Kværner board’s proposed solution to the company’s financial crisis at the extraordinary general meeting to be held in a week’s time. The objective is to force Yukos Oil into new talks. Mr Røkke will present his ‘Norwegian solution’ to Kværner’s difficulties this week. And Yukos is thought to be prepared to find a solution which Mr Røkke can accept. "Yukos has probably realized how risky it would be not to," writes Aftenposten’s commentator.

Røkke ready to pull the plug (Dagens Næringsliv)

Kjell Inge Røkke is ready to pull the plug on Yukos Oil’s rescue plan for Kværner and the proposed share issue. In a letter to shareholders Mr Røkke has warned them against supporting the Russians’ plan. He has still not given up his battle to win control of Kværner. Yesterday Mr Røkke’s company, Aker Maritime, bought an additional 2.5 million Kværner shares. Mr Røkke, who is Aker Maritime’s chairman and largest shareholder, has now sent a letter to Kværner’s shareholders in which he asks them to wait for his own alternative proposal.

Worth Noting

• The British bank, Lazard, has confirmed for the first time that the late shipowner Anders Jahre did have "exclusive and total control" over the Panama-registered company Continental Trust. The bank will now provide Mr Jahre’s estate with documents relating to his considerable offshore assets. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The Labour Party, Progress Party and Socialist Left Party have joined forces to secure a parliamentary majority for a proposal which would allow the state to cover the county hospitals’ record-breaking budget overruns this year. The hospitals’ total deficit could rise as high as NOK 2 billion. (Aftenposten)
• According to the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime, the Norwegian Police Academy’s focus on IKT teaching has had little impact on the extent to which the police use computer-based evidence in criminal investigations. Chief Public Prosecutor Inger Marie Sunde says that the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime has experienced that police officers who have undergone IKT training courses at the Police Academy are not used to investigate cases of computer crime in the country’s various police districts. (NTB)
• Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik is to be a guest on CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’ when he visits the USA in December. (Verdens Gang)
• The Norwegian Humanist Association has described the proposal to spend half a billion kroner on statutory Christian teaching for those baptized into the Church of Norway as both absurd and unacceptable. "We think it is absurd in 2001 to demand that internal Church matters be enshrined in law when we are about to see the total disestablishment of Church," said the Association’s Secretary General Lars Gule. (Nationen)
• Next year you could fly to Frankfurt or Brussels for just NOK 400. Ryanair is now launching a major expansion of its cut-price flights from Torp airport in Sandefjord. The company’s capacity to London is due to increase by 50 per cent. (Dagbladet)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

The election of a local council in one single district is not usually an event which generates a whole lot of interest – apart, that is, from those directly affected. But when a local community elects a decision-making body for the first time since 1925, it certainly deserves a mention. The name of the local council is something special, as are the circumstances and the geography which have given this corner of Norway a different local government system to the rest of the country. Longyearbyen Local Council is the name of the new body. As its name implies, the area it represents lies on Svalbard, Norway’s most northerly Arctic outpost. The local council election does not mean that the country has expanded its territory. Norway was given sovereignty over this landmass under the Svalbard Treaty of 9 February 1920, with the actual takeover taking place on 14 August 1925. But Svalbard has always been an area with certain peculiarities, both political and economic. If there is one part of Norway whose economy can be said to depend on a single commodity it must be Svalbard. However, the Svalbard Treaty’s provisions guaranteeing equal rights for all signatories to engage in business activities has given the area a multi-faceted political complexion. The main Norwegian industrial enterprise has been the coal mining activities of Store Norske Spitsbergen Kullkompani. Politically, the area has been subject to direct rule both through the company itself, which appropriately enough is now simply called Store Norske, and the Government’s representative, the Svalbard District Governor. Though local democracy is something new for Longyearbyen – a fact reflected in the 52 per cent turnout – it was high time that it also came to this distinctive part of Norway.