Companies must disclose equal opportunities record (Dagens Næringsliv)

Starting next year all limited companies will have to disclose details of pay levels for male and female employees, and the number of women in managerial positions and on the board in their annual reports. When the Storting’s Family, Cultural Affairs and Government Administration Committee yesterday published its recommendations for changes in the Equal Opportunities Act, it became clear that the proposal to force companies to issue an equal opportunities report would win the support of a parliamentary majority made up of Labour, Christian Democrat and Conservative MPs.

Statutory female quotas for board members will weaken share prices (Aftenposten)

Norwegian companies could see a slump in their share price if the Government introduces a statutory minimum requirement for the number of female board members, according to the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO). "The proposal is incomprehensible," said Sigrun Vågen, a senior executive of the NHO. She is surprised that the Government, which has promised to put Norwegian industry on an equal footing with its foreign competitors, should be pushing a proposal which will further increase the differences between them.

Conservatives caught napping (Dagens Næringsliv)

The huge publicity generated by Conservative Trade and Industry Minister Ansgar Gabrielsen’s threat to introduce statutory minimum requirements if businesses did not themselves recruit more women onto their boards of directors effectively painted the Conservative Party into a corner. Conservative MP Leif Frode Onarheim said he was surprised by the strength of Mr Gabrielsen’s feelings on the issue. Mr Gabrielsen himself declared, "The Conservatives have had to bite a few bullets on this one," when he and Equal Opportunities Minister Laila Dåvøy presented the Government’s proposal to ensure that at least 40 per cent of the board members of public limited companies are women.

No women on eight out of ten boards (Verdens Gang)

Today, on International Women’s Day, the Bondevik government is launching its campaign to get more women onto company boards. A recent survey published in VG today reveals that company boards are a men-only closed-shop. The figures are brutal, Armani-suited and sensationally unsensual. A massive 80 per cent of Norwegian companies have boards which are 100 per cent female-free. Women make up 40 per cent of the boards of only six out of 616 companies. That is the silk-tied truth about Norwegian boards of directors on this day, 8 March 2002.

Union boss to lead Labour selection committee (NTB)

As expected Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) has been chosen to lead the beleaguered Labour Party’s efforts to find a new leader. She plans to take her time. "I am very happy to have been given this vote of confidence. It is no heavy burden. I am looking forward to putting together a leadership team which can revitalize the Labour Party," she told the media on Thursday, after the selection committee had been elected by a unanimous Labour Party national executive committee.

Jagland kicks off new EU membership campaign (Dagbladet)

Outgoing Labour Party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland has said he believes the party should clarify whether Norway should apply for EU membership for a third time before the next general election. "I believe all the political parties should clarify this question so that the 2005 general election can once again be an important parliamentary election in which the parties have clarified whether they intend to apply for membership or not," he said. Trond Giske, who opposes EU membership, supports Mr Jagland’s stance. In his speech to Labour’s national executive committee yesterday Mr Jagland spoke at length on developments in the EU.

Storting votes in favour of Snow White (Aftenposten)

A substantial majority of MPs have voted to approve the development of the Snow White oil and gas field in the Barents Sea. However, the project now enters a long and difficult phase to gain the necessary operating licences and concessions. ‘Concession’ is a word that we are going to hear a lot more of in the next few months as the Snow White project moves forward. There a number of environmental issues which must be resolved in the form of emission permits. Petroleum and Energy Minister Einar Steensnæs emphasized yesterday that this process would start as soon as clarification on a political level had been achieved. He added that he was confident that Statoil, which has been awarded the operating licence for the field, will follow up the instructions it receives from the various government agencies involved.

Finance Minister promises cut in number of government charges (Dagsavisen)

Central government authorities have no complete overview of how many and what kind of fees and charges are in effect. Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss is now calling for a review. It is hoped to achieve a cut in the number and the level of such charges as early as next year. The Finance Ministry has asked the other ministries for an overview of the fees and charges which they administer. They have also been asked to evaluate possible ways of simplifying and otherwise modifying ‘their’ fees and charges.

1. Worth Noting

1. Norwegian women are the most liberated in the entire world. They are strong and self-confident. In many ways Norway can serve as a role-model for other societies, according to anthropologist and psychotherapist Dr A.K.B. Pillai and social worker and professor Donna Poma Pillai. In a book shortly to be published in both the USA and Norway, and provisionally entitled The Light of the Northern Star: Norwegian Women and Society, the two authors give top marks to Norwegian women and Norwegian society as a whole. (Bergens Tidende)
2. The number of women on Norwegian boards of directors lags ten years behind major US corporations, according to figures from the USA. Competition between the multinational corporations to attract women is extremely tough. (Dagens Næringsliv)
3. Labour Party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland believes the party’s ‘tax and spend’ image was a major contributor to its election defeat. He is now inviting the other parties to join forces with Labour in order to cut indirect taxes to European levels. (Dagsavisen)
4. The road construction budget in connection with the new opera house at Bjørvika in Oslo looks set to overrun by NOK 1 billion, reports NRK. The undersea tunnel which is to be built under Bjørvika is now estimated to cost NOK 3.2 billion. According to NRK’s evening news bulletin, when the Government presents its opera house report to the Storting after Easter the project is expected to cost between NOK 3 billion and NOK 3.4 billion. (NTB)
5. Bishop Gunnar Stålsett believes the future of the established church is too important to leave to the Church of Norway’s governing bodies and the country’s political parties. He is calling for a consultative referendum on the issue of disestablishment. (Vårt Land)
6. Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit donated NOK 200,000 of their wedding fund to an HIV project in Mozambique. However, the couple’s trip to the country to visit the project is due to cost NOK 250,000. (Dagsavisen)
7. Compared to other Nordic countries Norwegian police have a surprisingly low detection rate in connection with rape offences. In 2000 only 19 per cent of 555 reported rape cases were solved by the police, while the detection rate for Swedish police was twice as high. (Klassekampen)

2. Today’s comment from Dagbladet

Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), has been recommended to chair the Labour Party’s selection committee, and the national executive committee is almost certain to elect her. In so doing the party follows its established tradition of electing the sitting LO president to this prestigious and powerful office. In 1992 Thorbjørn Jagland was chosen as party chairman thanks to the support of then LO president Yngve Hågensen, who chaired the selection committee. The choice of Ms Valla confirms the close ties between the party and the LO. Leading figures in both camps have recently spoken out in favour of slackening these bonds which bear the marks of a by-gone age. A looser relationship would signal that both the Labour Party and the LO had made a necessary change in direction. Many people have also recognized that it will be impossible to retain the current practice if the Labour Party is to share government office with other political parties. But when it comes to the crunch the party loses its nerve, preferring to follow in the footsteps of previous generations rather than choosing a new path. It does not bode well for the renewal the party so desperately needs.