Norwegian-speakers only to receive citizenship (Aftenposten/Saturday)

The Government has dusted off a old proposal to deny citizenship to anyone who does not speak good enough Norwegian. The idea has previously been rejected by the majority of parties in the Storting. According to State Secretary Kristin Ørmen Johansen at the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Affairs, the question of whether citizenship should be linked to proficiency in the Norwegian language will be evaluated carefully by the Government.

Asylum-seekers disappear (Vårt Land/Saturday)

Refugees who have had their applications for asylum or residence on humanitarian grounds rejected must leave the country within the deadline they are given. But not all of them do. "Since 1 April last year we have registered 354 asylum-seekers who have disappeared from their refugee reception centre or other domicile after having their application rejected," said Superintendent Knut Øvregård of the Oslo Police. He is head of the central implementation unit which is responsible for all repatriation of asylum-seekers throughout the country.

The third man (Dagbladet)

Trond Giske is the person best suited to take over as Labour Party chairman if both Thorbjørn Jagland and Jens Stoltenberg pull out of the leadership race, according to 21 per cent of those polled in a survey carried out by MMI. This is ten per cent more than the number of people who would choose the party’s current deputy leader, Hill-Marta Solberg. "This is plain silly, because the issue is completely out of the question," said Mr Giske. The Labour Party’s annual conference is still more than eight months away, and Jens Stoltenberg and Thorbjørn Jagland’s authority could be whittled away by further twists in the personal conflict between the two men.

Stoltenberg is tackling leadership contest best (Dagbladet/Sunday)

Labour voters feel Jens Stoltenberg has handled the party’s leadership contest in a far better way than Thorbjørn Jagland. 25 per cent of those polled said that Mr Jagland had acquitted himself well during the leadership battle, while 38 per cent said Mr Stoltenberg has handled the conflict well or extremely well.

Not a penny more (Verdens Gang)

With the nurses’ strike entering its second week, Lars Haukaas, head of the public sector employers’ organization, NAVO, has used the opportunity to tell the nurses they will not get a penny as long as the strike lasts. "No way! It is completely out of the question," said Mr Haukaas, who is facing Bente Slaatten, leader of the Norwegian Nurses’ Association, across the negotiating table. According to Mr Haukaas, the employers will nevertheless resume contact with the strike leaders at the start of this week.

Unions keep the right to strike (Dagens Næringsliv)

Local government unions will still be allowed to go out on strike individually. The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) has abandoned its attempt to restrict the right to strike to the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the other main union confederations. The unions representing pre-school teachers, social workers, nurses and others will therefore still be allowed to call a strike without the backing of their union confederation.

Crack down on black economy (Aftenposten)

All those engaged in Norway’s black economy should sit up and take note. The tax authorities in every single Norwegian county have singled out individual industries which they plan to turn upside-down in a major investigation into the black economy. This time doctors and dentists can also expect a visit from the inspectors. The last major action against the black economy took place in the years 1993-1996, and produced good results.

1 Worth Noting

1. The forthcoming round of national wage negotiations will lead to the closure of many private nurseries. Several hundred nurseries are in parlous financial straits and cannot cope with higher costs. (Dagsavisen/Sunday)
2. A third of all the accidents reported to insurance companies involve damage to vehicles caused when parking in multi-storey car parks. Every year insurance companies pay out an incredible NOK 600 million to repair damage caused by reversing or hitting parked cars. (Verdens Gang)
3. "We must have a ban on cousins marrying each other," says former Children and Family Affairs Minister Karita Bekkemellem Orheim. She is deeply involved in the debate about how to stop the oppression of women and children in immigrant communities.(Dagbladet)
4. The Norwegian Central Bank and the Government Petroleum Fund invested in Enron, the controversial US energy trader which has now gone into receivership. Overnight, more than NOK 200 million evaporated from Norway’s piggy-bank. (Dagbladet)
5. Kjell Inge Røkke’s dream of building Europe’s best business school, came a step nearer to realization when a steering committee at the Norwegian School of Management (BI) decided to recommend the sale of BI’s campus at Sandvika and school building at Ekeberg in Oslo to Mr Røkke’s property development company, Avantor. (Aftenposten/Sunday)
6. According to police in Oslo, the proposal by the Social Affairs Ministry that officially sanctioned "injecting rooms" for drug addicts should be set up, is verging on the ludicrous. Only the Oslo and Bærum City Council has given its support to the creation of such rooms. (Dagsavisen)

2 Today’s comment from Verdens Gang

The Government is planning to dust off an old proposal that would link the awarding of Norwegian citizenship to an individual’s Norwegian language proficiency. The proposal has previously been turned down by the majority of parties, but it seems as though many of them would now like to take another look at the idea. Recent incidents in the immigrant community have acted as a wake-up call. They have shown that the integration of many immigrant groups has been unsuccessful or simply non-existent. More and more people have now realized that new measures are needed to ensure integration. We feel that the proposal is a reasonable demand on those who which to receive Norwegian citizenship. It could also help to reduce public opposition to immigration, and turn immigrants into an asset in the job market. The Government is planning to present this proposal to the Storting next spring. Initial reactions from the Storting indicate that the reform will win majority backing. In our opinion the proposal should be seen as helping immigrants to help themselves, and an important precondition to ensure that everyone who wishes to stay in Norway also feels at home here.