Labour and Progress Party call for more hospital cash (Aftenposten)

Both the Labour Party and Progress Party are concerned that patients will suffer due to cuts in hospital services. The two largest opposition parties in the Storting are now demanding that the Government increases the amount of cash available to the hospital sector. "These are unrealistic savings," said Labour leader Jens Stoltenberg, while the Progress Party’s Harald T. Nesvik said that the politicians could not sit idly by and see patients going untreated. The hospital sector is having to make savings of NOK 2 billion in relation to the budget. Next year they will have to follow up with a further NOK 1 billion in savings. The outcome will be redundancies and fewer hospital beds.

Labour calls for Steensnæs to approve gas-fired power stations (Dagsavisen/Saturday)

Labour’s former Petroleum and Energy Minister, Olav Akselsen, is blaming the Government for the record level of electricity prices. He has now called for the current incumbent, Einar Steensnæs (Chr.Dem) to speed up plans to construct gas-fired power stations. The former Labour minister points out that three gas-fired power stations have already been granted operating licences, though so far construction work has not begun. Mr Akselsen believes the existence of gas-fired power stations would have solved the problem of high prices and the threat of electricity rationing.

Threat of forced marriages affecting more young people (Dagsavisen)

The number of young people who are seeking help because they fear being forced into an arranged marriage has increased by 70 per cent during the past year. An increasing number of young men are subject to strong pressure from their families. "The problems are often due to a conflict between the generations," said Eva Khan, leader of the Oslo Red Cross’s International Centre. The Centre receives the largest number of contacts from desperate young people.

Kidnapped children (Dagsavisen/Saturday)

59 child kidnapping cases remain unsolved since 1988. Many of the children were taken out of Norway following the breakdown of a relationship in which one or both of the parents were of foreign nationality. The problem is growing, according to the Foreign Ministry and the National Bureau of Crime Investigation. In the majority of unsolved kidnapping cases, the child or children have been taken to an Islamic country by their father.

Minister sweet talks union confederation (Dagens Næringsliv)

The Government is promising a number of concessions, including higher tax deductions for union dues, more measures for the unemployed and modest executive pay rises, if the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) will agree to a moderate wage settlement in the spring. In the past few weeks Labour and Government Administration Minister Victor D. Norman has been working hard to win the LO’s cooperation with regard to this spring’s national wage negotiations. Mr Norman heads a committee including, among others, LO president Gerd-Liv Valla and Finn Bergesen Jr, head of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO). Dagens Næringsliv has reason to believe that Mr Norman is close to a conclusion. His objective is to forge an agreement that this year’s wage rises should be kept down to the same level as those of our trading partners. This means wage rises of around four per cent – which is a good deal less than many people got in 2002.

Concerns about consequences of a war in Iraq (Nationen)

A US attack on Iraq would be "bad for business". This is the feeling among a number of Norwegian business leaders that Nationen has spoken to. Storebrand, Den norske Bank, Jotun, Ekornes, Wilhelmsen and the powerful Federation of Norwegian Process Industries are all concerned about the possible consequences of a war. It is not just a matter of Jens Petter Ekornes, chief executive of the Ekornes furniture manufacturing company, selling fewer Stressless armchairs. Mr Ekornes fears that the consequences will be much more wide-ranging. "A war will lead to higher oil prices, higher interest rates and damage our competitiveness," he said.

Christian Democratic leadership needs time to think (Vårt Land)

All the recent controversy has made Valgerd Svarstad Haugland decide to take some time out to think things through before making up her mind about whether to accept re-election as chairman of the Christian Democratic Party. The party’s deputy leader, Petroleum and Energy Minister Einar Steensnæs, also wants to put off making a decision about his own future until his boss has made up her mind. He admits to being surprised by Ms Svarstad Haugland’s announcement that she needed more time to consider her position. Ms Svarstad Haugland has said that her desire to extend the deadline for a decision on her part should not be interpreted in any particular direction.

Enoksen refuses to throw in the towel (Dagbladet)

A majority of the Centre Party’s county branches want Åslaug Haga as the party’s new chairman. But incumbent Odd Roger Enoksen is refusing to stand down when he meets the party’s selection committee tomorrow. Both Mr Enoksen and Ms Haga have been invited to the selection committee’s meeting. Last autumn Mr Enoksen announced he would step aside as leader, but made it clear that he was ready to continue if the party wanted him to.

Cars more popular than planes (Dagsavisen/Sunday)

Norwegians love to drive their cars. When it comes to non-business journeys of over 300 kilometres, cars are preferred in twice as many cases as planes, according to a recent report from the Institute of Transport Economics. Norwegians’ passion for their cars is also revealed by the number of kilometres they drive each year. In 2001 an average car drove 14,150 km, but new and fancy models were driven even farther – around 18,000 km.

Worth Noting

• "When the EU admits poor countries from eastern Europe as members, Norway has to take it seriously," said Petter Eide. He was communications chief of the No to the EU organization ahead of the last EU referendum in 1994. Today he is a supporter of Norwegian membership of the EU.
  (Klassekampen/Saturday)
• Ågot Valla (Socialist Left Party), chairwoman of the Storting’s Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs Committee, can expect to receive a drubbing from her own committee members when she returns to the Storting this week. In recent weeks, Ms Valla has made remarks on a number of issues, which she has subsequently been forced to tone down.
  (Verdens Gang)
• An increasing number of police officers have received serious threats against themselves or their families in the past three years. The number of police officers who live in fear is rising. Some have even been forced to sell up and move to a different part of the country.
  (Dagbladet)
• The local rescue plan, whose aim is to keep Nordlandsbanken as an independent north-Norwegian bank, is to get a second chance. After a close-run vote, the bank’s supervisory board has asked the board of directors to consider the local alternative before Den norske Bank’s deadline for acceptance of its offer expires at 4 pm on Wednesday.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• "House prices are already on their way down, and there is little to indicate that the trend will reverse in the short term," said Hans Jacob Hansen of OPAK, Norway’s largest firm of building project managers and structural engineers. The price of terraced houses and semi-detached houses has fallen by 9.3 per cent since May.
  (Aftenposten)
• A forest of for-sale signs cluttered the pavements in Oslo this weekend. As many as 800 houses and apartments were open for viewing by potential buyers, and estate agents were hoping that the pre-Christmas lull in the market was over. But not all the properties were equally as popular with the buyers.
  (Dagsavisen)
• A number of Norwegian investors are concerned that the Tax Commission will abolish the current scheme for assessing the tax liability of owner-managers and replace it with double taxation of extraordinarily high dividends. "Innovation in Norway would suffer tremendously if double taxation of dividends were introduced," said well-known investor Ole Mæle.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Finance Credit borrowed NOK 450 million on the strength of a monthly auditor’s confirmation of reports detailing the company’s business activities. The four banks which lent the company money accepted its explanations of why those reports were not forthcoming, and generously placed a further NOK 125 million at the company’s disposal.
  (Aftenposten/Sunday)

Today’s comment from Verdens Gang

There was no shortage of fine words and promises at this weekend’s meeting in Kirkenes to mark the tenth anniversary of the Barents Sea Council. Taking part were the four Nordic prime ministers, the Russian prime minister, the Icelandic Finance Minister and representatives from the EU; the combination of Sami culture and high politics creating an unusual framework for a summit. We have heard fine words and promises before, but in several important areas concrete results have yet to be forthcoming. This is particularly true of plans to clean up the nuclear waste on the Russian side of the border. Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik is not currently overwhelmed with praise at the moment. It was probably therefore a welcome change for Mr Bondevik to hear his Swedish counterpart Göran Persson pay tribute to Norway’s role as a driving force in the Barents Sea Council’s first ten years of existence. At the same time Mr Persson indicated strongly that in future the EU would make a bigger financial contribution. The aim is for the countries who are participating in the Barents Sea Council to sign an new agreement on a nuclear waste clean-up in the course of the year. The Russian nuclear waste causes enormous environmental problems. We can only hope that Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov’s willingness to finally do something about it is as strong when he returns to the day-to-day political reality in Moscow.