Post-expansion EU demands share of Norway’s wealth (Aftenposten)

All ten of the countries that have applied for membership of the EU support the European Commission’s hard line in its negotiations with Norway over a renewal of the EEA Agreement. The EU candidate countries are demanding that we pay part of the bill for the economic burden expansion represents for the rich countries of western Europe. But no one is willing to say as yet how much we will end up paying.

Majority of women in favour of EU membership (Aftenposten/Sunday)

53 per cent of women who have made up their minds on the issue support Norwegian membership of the EU. This is a historic figure. A mere three months ago only 42 per cent of women were in favour of membership. The latest EU poll shows that an upsurge in support for EU membership has swept the country this autumn. Of those women and men who have made up their minds, 58 per cent want Norway to join the European Union. This is the highest proportion of yes-votes since the 1994 referendum.

Acquisitions to be made easier under new EU rules (Dagens Næringsliv)

A soon-to-be adopted EU directive will make it easier for ownership of Norwegian companies to change hands. The new EU directive, which could be adopted as early as next spring, would have to be incorporated into Norwegian law within three years. The new EU rules aim to make it easier to define shareholders who are working together to stave off a takeover bid as a "group".

Parties squabbling over small change (Dagsavisen)

The parties engaged in the current tug-of-war over next year’s national budget are squabbling over some NOK 5 billion, less than one per cent of the total budget figure. Nevertheless, it is a sum which could topple the Government. The Progress Party’s Carl I. Hagen demanded the reallocation of NOK 10 billion in return for his support. Labour’s Jens Stoltenberg wanted NOK 7.5 billion, while the Socialist Left Party’s Kristin Halvorsen described the offer she received from the Government as a joke. Wednesday is the deadline for the Storting’s Finance Committee to reach agreement, but the game could go into overtime.

Progress Party unveils its ideal budget (Dagbladet/Sunday)

At the same time as Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik is trying to win majority support for the Government’s proposed budget for next year, the Progress Party has taken the opportunity to unveil its own proposal. The Progress Party wants to cut direct and indirect taxes by NOK 28.5 billion, reduce public spending by NOK 13.5 billion and use an additional NOK 15 billion of the country’s oil revenues. Agricultural subsidies would be halved, a third would be lopped off the foreign aid budget and cultural affairs would receive 14 per cent less. The party also wants to abolish wealth tax and reduce the high-income surtax. NOK 5 billion will go on increasing the basic personal tax allowance.

Cap on nursery fees postponed (Aftenposten)

The Labour Party, Progress Party, Socialist Left Party and Centre Party, who united to push through the pre-school day care reform against the minority government’s wishes, have broken their promise that no one would have to pay more than NOK 2,500 per month for a nursery place from next autumn. The nursery fee cap will not now be introduced until 2004 at the earliest, and it will not be until 2005 that the maximum fee payable will be cut to NOK 1,500. "It is good that the opposition parties have been willing to rethink their plan. The gap between the opposition and the Government has closed slightly. I see this move as indicative of their willingness to take a step closer to the Government’s position," said Jan Tore Sanner, economic policy spokesman for the Conservative Party.

Valla slams Labour’s deputy leadership farce (Dagsavisen/Saturday)

Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and leader of the Labour Party’s selection committee, has described what happened at the Labour Party’s annual conference as "messy" and "sad". She reacted particularly strongly to the fact that leading party activists chopped and changed their arguments to whatever happened to support their chosen candidate at any given time. Ms Valla’s comments come one week after the Labour conference rejected Anniken Huitfedt as deputy leader. According to Ms Valla, centrally placed activists were pursuing a hidden agenda and switched arguments and positions with regard to the deputy leader issue to whatever served their own interests.

Railway investment hits brick wall (Aftenposten/Sunday)

Measures to improve safety in a number of train tunnels and hazardous level crossings have now been shelved. Plans to replace sections of single track on the busiest lines in eastern Norway with double track have also been halted. The major investment programme over the next three years, which was part of the National Transport Plan, is to be cut by almost half due to a lack of cash. The National Rail Administration has been forced to postpone NOK 2.6 billion worth of investments. Some of them could have to wait until 2016 before they are implemented.

Bondevik cuts asylum forecast (Dagens Næringsliv/Saturday)

Compared to last year, Norway’s immigration budget rose by 25 per cent in 2002 to NOK 4.7 billion. It is expected that around 18,000 asylum seekers will arrive in Norway this year. Over the past few months the Bondevik government has tightened up in a number areas regarding asylum and immigration. The Government’s 2003 budget is based on 16,000 asylum seekers coming to Norway next year. Faster processing times for those whose applications for asylum are to be rejected, as well as less money and other benefits for those who have already arrived, account for most of the cuts.

1. Worth Noting

• If the Church of Norway were to be disestablished, the Socialist Left Party would be prepared to make it an offer of NOK 4 billion and title to most church buildings.
  (Vårt Land)
• The vast majority of dividends are paid out to the country’s wealthiest people, according to figures released by the Ministry of Finance. The Labour Party has said it wants to reintroduce dividend tax.
  (Dagsavisen/Saturday)
• The total amount in unpaid taxes owed by Norwegian citizens for the period since 2000 is NOK 1.9 billion. Tax arrears account for over half of all accrued but unpaid taxes and duties, which total NOK 3.5 billion.
  (Verdens Gang)
• Carl I. Hagen, chairman of the Progress Party, has unveiled how he thinks this autumn will end if Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik demands a vote of confidence in an attempt to get his government’s budget adopted by the Storting. According to Mr Hagen, the PM will hand the reins of power to Labour’s Jens Stoltenberg in return for being elected President of the Storting.
  (Dagbladet/Saturday)
• The recruitment industry is currently being augmented by a colourful addition to its number. "Jobs for all" is intended to help well-educated immigrants find relevant jobs.
  (Dagsavisen)
• In the course of just a few months in 1998, then Minister of Justice Aud Inger Aure (Chr.Dem) ensured that 200 people were granted asylum in Norway – despite their applications having previously been rejected.
  (Verdens Gang)
• Over NOK 1 billion may have disappeared from the Finance Credit group of companies in what could be one of Norway’s largest ever fraud cases.
  (Verdens Gang)
• The four counties which make up Norway’s West Country region are suffering most from the current industrial crisis. The total value of exports from the West Country fell by 15.3 per cent, or NOK 10.1 billion, during the first ten months of the year.
  (Aftenposten)
• Norwegian doctor Stein Hoff has become the first person ever to row solo from Europe to South America. He rowed his seven-metre boat without assistance from Lisbon in Portugal to Georgetown in Guyana – a distance of 3,700 nautical miles. The trip took 97 days.

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

This weekend the party which, according to all the country’s opinion polls, is currently the most popular with the voters unveiled its alternative national budget. It was a budget based more on wishful thinking than economic realism. Our objections to the Progress Party’s alternative budget can be divided into two categories: substantive disagreement and a conviction that the effect of the party’s proposals would, in a number of areas, be quite different from those it itself anticipates. We believe it would show an extreme lack of solidarity, and is likely to damage Norway’s international reputation if we, as one of the world’s richest countries, were to slash our foreign aid funding to the level proposed by the Progress Party. We also believe that the party’s proposed cuts in agricultural subsidies and reductions in direct and indirect taxes are far too drastic. But our greatest objection is directed at the Progress Party’s budget as a whole, whose basic premise is the spending of far more of the country’s oil revenues than the other parties think is reasonable. Once again the Progress Party has provided the best possible proof that any cooperation between it and the Government over the budget would be extremely difficult – despite the fact that the concessions the party is demanding in return for its support for the Government’s proposal are far more modest than the wish list it announced this weekend.

Sport

Norway’s Petter Solberg won the first World Rally event of his career this weekend, when he won the British Rally at his first attempt. Solberg’s victory also gave him second place in the season’s championship points race.