Budget battle over additional cash benefit for under threes (Dagsavisen)

So far the Labour Party has announced that it will propose an increase in public spending of NOK 7.5 billion in its alternative national budget. Where the revenues are coming from to pay for this has only been briefly touched on. The Newspapers’ News Agency (ANB) is given to understand that the Labour Party wants to abolish altogether the additional cash benefit for children under three, not just reject the Government’s proposed benefit increase. In this way the Labour Party has NOK 3 billion to play around with in its budget. In addition, the Labour Party will be happy with tax cuts of only NOK 9 billion next year, NOK 3 billion less than the Government has announced. The most important elements in the Labour Party’s tax increases are the reintroduction of dividend tax, an increase in the high-income surtax and higher residential property taxes.

Valla may say no to Labour (Dagens Næringsliv)

Jens Stoltenberg is pushing to get Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), to join the Labour Party leadership. But Dagens Næringsliv has reason to believe that Ms Valla is leaning towards a definite no to being elected onto the Labour Party’s central committee. If she does decide not to stand for election, the LO will want its collaboration with the Labour Party strengthened as "payment". The LO president has always had a place on the party’s central committee, but this tradition could be abandoned at Labour’s annual conference, which starts today. Powerful forces would very much like Ms Valla to say yes to the job. Incoming party leader Jens Stoltenberg and party secretary Martin Kolberg are thought to be among them.

Stage set for all-woman race for deputy leadership (Aftenposten)

On Sunday, if the Labour Party’s selection committee proposes Anniken Huitfeldt as the party’s new deputy leader, the deputy leadership race could turn into a battle between two women. Karita Bekkemellem Orheim’s supporter say they will consider carefully before they throw in the towel. Aftenposten knows that Ms Bekkemellem Orheim herself is mentally prepared for such a situation to arise, and she is under pressure to maintain her candidacy even in the face of a unanimous recommendation from the selection committee. But the annual conference could decide today that the party should have only one deputy leader – the incumbent Hill-Marta Solberg.

Party rallying behind Huitfeldt (Dagsavisen)

Anniken Huitfeldt is the candidate that Gerd-Liv Valla and the rest of the Labour Party’s selection committee are recommending as the new deputy leader. As a consolation prize several of the rejected candidates will be given a seat on the party’s national executive committee. The selection committee’s job was made easier after Trond Giske announced in yesterday’s Dagsavisen that he was no longer a candidate. Ms Valla has praised Mr Giske for stepping aside to make it easier to bring two women into the party’s leadership. "I have noted Mr Giske’s decision. Mr Giske says his motive was the promotion of gender equality and the possibility of reaching a solution which could unify the party. This is constructive," said Ms Valla.

Defence Minister under close scrutiny (Dagsavisen)

In future, the Storting’s Defence Committee will be keeping a close watch on Defence Minister Kristin Krohn Devold (Con). Ms Devold avoided a reprimand after appearing at two hearings – one open and one closed – of the Storting’s Defence Committee. At the open hearing the subject under discussion was the cluster bomb scandal and Ms Devold’s lack of control of the Armed Forces. "She was well prepared and strengthened her authority. She performed well," said Marit Nybakk (Lab), leader of the Defence Committee. But Ms Krohn Devold can not breathe easy. "She has raised expectations to high levels with the measures she has announced, and we will be keeping a close watch to make sure she follows up on them. We will be keeping her under close scrutiny. It is important that we see concrete results," said Ms Nybakk. After the hearings, Ms Krohn Devold, as tight-lipped as ever, said that they "had gone as expected".

Eurofighter deal comes in for landing (Aftenposten)

Defence Minister Kristin Krohn Devold (Con) has promised to announce how much money is to be put on the table to secure a cooperation agreement on the Eurofighter aircraft. During a hearing of the Storting’s Defence Committee yesterday, Ms Krohn Devold said that she hoped an agreement on the Eurofighter could be finalized in a couple of weeks. The two sides are due to meet this coming Tuesday. On Wednesday of this week the Defence Minister sent a letter to EADS, the consortium responsible for building the Eurofighter, giving assurances that Norway was still interested purchasing the aircraft.

Bondevik faces 12 asylum questions (Nationen)

The Storting’s Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs Committee has unanimously voted to ask Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik to answer 12 questions regarding the controversial decision to grant asylum to the brother of a Pakistani-born Christian Democrat politician. If the Committee is not satisfied with the answers the issue could be brought before the full Storting. Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen would prefer to have the answers on the table on Monday. Jørgen Kosmo (Lab) says that what is most important for the Committee is to make plain that the principle of equality under the law also applies here, and to ensure that this case has not been dealt with as a political favour. Among the questions which the Committee is seeking answers to, is why the decision to reject the individual’s application for asylum was overturned and, not least, why it happened while the Government was sitting in a caretaker capacity, four days before Mr Bondevik’s first government stepped down.

Duped (Dagbladet)

Environment Minister Børge Brende had no idea that Fisheries Minister Svein Ludvigsen was going to award 40 new fish farming licences. Mr Brende had written to the Storting’s Energy and Environment Committee the day before, saying that the 40 salmon farming licences had been put on ice until the wild salmon issue had been resolved. The Socialist Left Party’s parliamentary group will today send a letter to Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik asking who in the Government actually makes the decisions on environmental and resource issues. Labour backs this criticism of Mr Ludvigsen and the Government.

Worth Noting

• Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), does not want a seat on the Labour Party’s central committee, according to NRK reports. Since as far back as 1899 it has been a tradition for the LO president to be a member of the Labour Party leadership.
  (nrk.no)
• Incoming Labour Party chairman Jens Stoltenberg has not ruled out the privatization of social services. Private companies also have a role to play in the welfare state, he says.
  (Dagsavisen)
• Investor Terje Mikalsen, one of the prime movers behind the creation of an international knowledge and IT centre on the site of the previous Oslo airport at Fornebu, is giving up. He has himself invested NOK 3-4 million in the project. "It is impossible to sell this idea now," said Mr Mikalsen.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The delegates to the Labour Party’s annual conference earn over NOK 110,000 more than average. Incoming party chairman Jens Stoltenberg earned almost NOK 900,000 last year.
  (Klassekampen)
• "If Norway demands better market access for its fish in an extended EU, the EU will, in return, demand the right to invest in the Norwegian fishing fleet. The EU is not interested in linking fisheries and agriculture," said the European Commission’s Ambassador to Oslo, Gerhard Sabathil. The Commission is due to decide its negotiating mandate for an extended EEA Agreement in the coming week.
  (Nationen)
• So far this year 22 fishing industry companies have gone into liquidation. This is twice as many as in the whole of last year. A total of 8,000 jobs have been lost. Half of the 22 companies which have gone to the wall are located in the north of Norway.
  (Klassekampen)
• SAS is to axe a further 2,700 jobs in the period to 2004. This means that a total of 6,200 jobs will have disappeared in just three years. NTB has reason to believe that just over a third of those whose jobs are to be axed will be made redundant, while the rest will go through natural wastage.
  (NTB)
• 2,200 of Oslo’s citizens are competing for the right to buy one of the new apartments OBOS is building at Sjølyststranda. Penthouse apartments will cost around NOK 9 million.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)

Today’s comment from Verdens Gang

The Labour Party’s annual conference opens today. Trond Giske has pulled out of the deputy leadership race, which means that much of the drama is already over, even before party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland holds his opening address. For months the deputy leadership dispute has surrounded the Labour Party in a cloak of sound and fury. The party’s leadership is probably hoping that this weekend’s annual conference will run its course smoothly, without clashes of any kind. The Labour Party needs an annual conference without clashes between its leading officers, but at the same time it needs an annual conference which is both concerned about the party’s current situation and prepared to seek new solutions. The conference should be concerned that the Labour Party has not managed to find its position in a political landscape in which the dividing lines between the various parties are becoming increasingly indistinguishable. It also needs to look for the answers the social democratic movement should have to both current and future political challenges. Labour’s annual conference should spend this weekend trying to rediscover its very reason for being. Its delegates should ask themselves, and each other: Why should the Labour Party be part of the Norwegian political flora? What can Labour contribute that the other parties cannot do equally well? Quite simply, Labour must do some fundamental soul-searching. Not only to reveal its own faults and weaknesses, but also to find out what kind of society the Labour Party wants Norway to be. Labour’s strength has always been that it has had an all-encompassing political programme. The voters have been attracted not by policies on individual issues, but by the conviction that Labour is capable of governing. But in order to govern, there need to be some governing principles. This weekend’s annual conference will perhaps tell us something about what kind of society the Labour Party wants to develop. But it will be a long time before we know whether the Labour Party will ever be large enough to implement its policies. In any event, the party faithful will have to work hard – and be patient. Labour’s problems are not going to be solved over night.

NOREG