Public prosecutor speaks out against counter-terrorism bill (Aftenposten)

Tor-Aksel Busch, the Director General of Public Prosecutions, is extremely critical of Minister of Justice Odd Einar Dørum’s counter-terrorism draft bill. Mr. Busch does not believe Norway needs specific legislation against terrorism. He feels existing laws are sufficient to deal with this type of crime. He is also against giving police wider powers to use such unconventional investigation methods as bugging devices.

Dåvøy flouts Conservatives (Aftenposten)

The Conservatives cannot accept the imposition of gender quotas on private business. But Minister of Children and Family Affairs Laila Dåvøy, whose ministry is responsible for gender equality issues, is adamant, and insists on placing the draft bill on the Cabinet’s agenda. "Business leaders still believe quotas spell incompetent board members. That’s not the way it is," she says. But Conservative parliamentary leader Oddvar Nilsen does not believe Conservative MPs, as a group, will be able to support a bill that imposes this type of affirmative action on private enterprise.

Women executives must age (Dagsavisen)

The fact that there are still few women in Norwegian board rooms is not unnatural, in the view of Prof. Morten Huse of the Norwegian School of Management (BI). "When today’s top women executives, who are largely in their 40s, start winding down their executive careers, then they will start moving into the board rooms," he says. The available research shows that board members are generally recruited from among ageing executives. The average age of board members is 55 years.

Bondevik sets deadline (Dagens Næringsliv)

Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik sets the deadline for increasing the percentage of women on corporate boards at 2004 or 2005. "We are looking for a substantial rise in women’s representation in private corporate board rooms, as the gender equality minister and the Minister of Trade and Industry have made clear. Personally, I am happy with their initiative. This is something the Christian Democratic Party and myself have advocated for a long time," he says.

Socialists even with Labour (Nationen)

The Socialist Left Party (SV) has caught up with Labour for the very first time in an opinion poll. Nationen’s political barometer puts SV at 17.0 and Labour at 17.2 per cent. "I am quite pleased at the confidence shown in us, but the low total figure for Labour and SV is disturbing," says SV leader Kristin Halvorsen. Labour leader Thorbjørn Jagland is not so happy. The same poll rated the Progress Party at 23.1 per cent and the Conservatives at 21.9 per cent. This is the highest combined rating ever noted by Sentio-Norsk Statistikk for the two right-wing parties.

Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik has applied the brakes in the Snow White project. Statoil will not be allowed to start building a gas-fired power plant on the Snow White field until all permits are in order. The parliamentary committee on Energy and the Environment approved the Snow White project yesterday, but a new signal came today which environmentalists view as a glimpse of daylight at the end of the tunnel. In a letter to Socialist Left party leader Kristin Halvorsen, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik made it clear that Statoil will have to obtain its licence and emissions permits before it can start building the power plant in question.

Worth noting

• There is always someone willing to launder money and pay for corruption, just as there is always someone willing to sell these services, says Eva Joly, the French investigating magistrate originally from Norway. If she can obtain a leave of absence from her post in France, she will begin a three-year assignment on 1 May as special adviser to the Norwegian Government in the war on international corruption. (Dagsavisen)
• The EU Commission demands a quicker response from Norway in implementing EU law. A tougher line from the EU could have a dramatic impact on the EEA Agreement. (Aftenposten)
• Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik shrugs off Conservative aversions to corporate gender quotas. A legislative amendment, or the threat of one, could come as early as next Friday – International Women’s Day. (Verdens Gang)
• Minister of Transport and Communications Torild Skogsholm says that cutting out long distance rail passenger services in Norway is out of the question. (Dagsavisen)
• With the Storting now having approved the development of the Snow White gas field, what may be the biggest environmental confrontation since the damming of the Alta River for a hydroelectric project in the early 1980s may be brewing. (Aftenposten)
• Average speed for busses in the centre of Oslo is down to 18 km/h. One billion kroner and measures to curb private cars will be necessary to prevent public transport from grinding to a complete halt, say sector spokesmen. (Dagsavisen)
• Norwegian fish farmers are willing to put up NOK 500 million to pay for global marketing of salmon. But this is still not enough to get the EU to rescind its minimum price regime on Norwegian salmon and drop the threat of punitive duties. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The Oslo Stock Exchange reported 536 infractions of reporting requirements to the Banking, Insurance and Securities Commission last year, against 93 the year before. Stock Exchange officials are at their wits’ end because the Commission’s investigations lead to nothing. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The Progress Party’s parliamentary group feels the national opera house project in Bjørvika should be thrown out altogether and that an entirely new look should be taken at Norway’s spending on culture. (Aftenposten)

Today's comment (Nationen)

The Conservatives, not to mention the entire political right, are stronger than ever before. Compared to the current situation, the rightward surge in the 1980s was no more than a sidestep. The Conservatives are now in Government. This normally has an adverse effect on their political health, and even more so when they are part of a coalition government that does not even enjoy a parliamentary majority. Viewed in this light, it is no less than a sensation that Norway’s two right-wing parties together are currently supported by 45 per cent of the electorate. We can hardly blame the Conservatives for pursuing Conservative policies, but for the sake of the country, we hope that others who want to take Norway in a different direction soon regain the offensive. If they do not succeed, we could easily wake up one day to find Jan Petersen and Carl I. Hagen running the country. If that happens, the strength of the Socialist Left will mean little if the political left consists of two second-rate parties.