The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Oslo Press Division

Norway Daily No. 109/00

Date: 13 June 2000

VALUES COMMISSION WILL BE RESCUED BY ADVERTS (Aftenposten)

One media appearance each month is what it will take to restore respect for the Values Commission, according to advertising experts and media advisers who have been assigned to this job. A group has been given the specific responsibility for choosing issues the commission should get involved in and that should be marketed by the advertising sector. The head of the Values Commission, Jan Erik Langangen, does not wish to comment on this issue.

INTEREST RATE HIKE TOMORROW (Dagbladet)

When Central Bank Governor Svein Gjedrem calls the interest-rate meeting of the executive board at Norges Bank to order at 11:00 tomorrow morning, the outcome is easy to predict. Once again interest rates will go up. Two months ago Mr. Gjedrem raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage points. Tomorrow he will probably do the same. Rates will go up a maximum of 0.50 percentage points. Norwegian interest rate analysts agree that there will be an increase.

TURBULENT RELATIONSHIP AT NORGES BANK (Aftenposten)

The central bank governor cannot accept defeated from his own executive board. If this happens he will have to step down, former central bank governor Hermod Skånland says to Aftenposten. Tomorrow Norges Bank will increase interest rates, if we can believe the experts. If this does not happen, the market has misinterpreted the signals given by Norges Bank, which in itself could present a problem since Svein Gjedrem has emphasized the importance of predictability. Another possible explanation, which would be even more serious, is that the central bank governor has been voted down at the meeting of the executive board.

JAGLAND IGNORES UN AGREEMENT (Nationen)

Minister of Foreign Affairs Thorbjørn Jagland has now declared that introducing EU patent legislation will force Norway to violate obligations it has undertaken in an important UN agreement. He is nevertheless approving the legislation, long before the party has dealt with the issue. On the whole, Labour leaders at county level know little or nothing about this legislation or about the party’s opinion on the issue.

STRIKE RESULTS IN HIGHER OIL PRICES (Dagens Næringsliv)

The strike on the Draugen oil platform and OPEC’s reluctance to increase oil production are sending petroleum prices to new heights. This is a boon for the oil-producing countries, while the Norwegian government is footing the bill for the halt in production. During this past holiday weekend, the Draugen oil field has been a hot name on the computer screens of the petroleum brokers. The price of North Sea petroleum has now reached USD 30.40 per barrel for delivery before Christmas. The reason for this increase was the Draugen strike, which on Saturday stopped the production of 225 000 barrels of oil a day, which is slightly under ten per cent of the entire Norwegian oil production.

WAR OF NERVES BETWEEN BAZAN AND UMOE (Aftenposten, Saturday edition)

The backstage war of nerves is intense between the Spanish Bazan shipyard and the Norwegian Umoe. The result may be that other Norwegian shipyards are awarded the frigate contracts. The formal signing of the frigate contract has been postponed again because the repurchase contracts offered by Bazan are not good enough. The Norwegian authorities, led by Minister of Defence Bjørn Tore Godal, are now pressuring Bazan heavily to reach agreement with Umoe.

CONFLICT REGARDING EU DEFENCE (Dagsavisen, Saturday edition)

Minister of Foreign Affairs Thorbjørn Jagland’s statement to the Storting resulted in the second conflict between Mr. Jagland and the chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Einar Steensnæs (Christian Democrat), within a month. The last time they disagreed was on Norwegian participation in the UN forces in Lebanon. Yesterday it was Norway’s relations to the EU that made the sparks fly. The war of words in the Storting is all about how great an influence Norway, as a member of NATO, will have when we participate in an operation that is led by the EU.

CLEAR MAJORITY FOR PARTIAL PRIVATIZATION OF STATOIL (Aftenposten, Saturday edition)

According to a poll carried out by Opinion for Aftenposten, half the people who were polled want to open the state-owned petroleum company Statoil to private capital. A third are against. Among Labour voters the percentage is around the same as in the population in general. The largest percentage of people in favour of privatization, 77 per cent, is to be found in the Conservative Party. Seventy-two per cent of Centre Party voters are opposed to it. This shows that the Labour Party officials have both the general public and the party majority on their side when they want to inject private capital into the state-owned petroleum company.

NOT READY FOR A MERGER (Dagens Næringsliv, Saturday edition)

Several members of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions committee on petroleum policy could be in favour of a merger between Statoil and Hydro’s division for oil and gas activities. But the members of the Confederation believe that this is politically impossible right now, and are leaving the issue on the sidelines for the moment. After ten months of tug-of-war, the Confederation has managed to agree on the question of the future organization of the state’s participating interests in Norwegian petroleum activities. Executives at Statoil have every reason to be satisfied with the document that has now been circulated for comment to all the branch offices of the Confederation, and the Confederation will reach a conclusion in September – well before Labour’s national party congress. The Confederation’s petroleum policy committee advocates partial privatization of Statoil by up to ten per cent when it is introduced into the stock market.

JUST USE PETROLEUM REVENUES (Klassekampen, Saturday edition)

Trygve Hegnar, editor of the magazine Kapital, denied assertions that it would harm the Norwegian economy to meet the demands of the public sector employees who are on strike. In Mr. Hegnar’s view, it is absurd to have NOK 200 billion in earnings and not use this money to improve the situation of the weakest members of the community. He says this is completely indefensible. Employers are afraid of the domino effect: if the striking employees see that it pays to go on strike, more of them could vote against a settlement, according to Jan Andersen-Gott, general director at the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities.

STATE RAILWAYS AND RAIL ADMINISTRATION WILL SUFFER (Verdens Gang, Saturday edition)

The Norwegian State Railways and the Norwegian National Rail Administration will probably be left with the entire responsibility for the åsta accident. The police are now considering whether the Norwegian railway officials should be penalized. According to VG’s sources, the personnel aboard the trains that crashed will, however, go free when the police assign responsibility soon for the crash that cost the lives of 19 people. According to VG’s sources, the police will propose in the near future that a penalty be imposed on the State Railways and the Rail Administration as a result of the accident at åsta. This has never happened before.

WORTH NOTING

• A trade-off with France at the end of the 1980s is obstructing the backbone of Norwegian defence, the Leopard tanks. Secret tests show that the ammunition is unable to destroy targets farther away than 800 metres, 1000 metres less than the defence forces wanted. ( Aftenposten, Saturday edition)
• If Norway does not stop producing exploding bullets, its reputation as a peace-loving country may be in danger, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The organization claims that Norway is the only country in the world that manufactures ammunition that explodes when it hits people. The producer is the former Raufoss Ammunition Factory, which is now part of the Nordic Nammo company. ( Dagsavisen, Saturday edition)
• The least visible of all the influential Norwegian politicians, Martin Kolberg, is tired of living in the shadow of the Labour Party’s more well-known figures. Now Foreign Minister Thorbjørn Jagland’s childhood friend will be visible to the public, in his new position as a member of the Storting from Buskerud. ( Verdens Gang, Saturday edition)
• Renewed conflicts around cod quotas are expected when the Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission meets in Murmansk this week. The extraordinary meeting has been called because of the bleak situation for cod in Norwegian and Arctic waters. ( Aftenposten)
• Plans for a tax on "tyre noise" have not been abandoned. Two ministries are very seriously considering introducing this new tax on noise from car tyres. Norwegian privately-owned cars and trucks are already subject to 13 different taxes of various kinds. Now a new one may be on its way. ( Verdens Gang)
• One point scored by Norway against Spain in the football game today could mean NOK 10 million for the Norwegian Football Federation. Even if the Norwegian team is totally humiliated on the field, the European Championship will be a gold mine for the Federation. ( Dagens Næringsliv)

TODAY'S COMMENT from Dagbladet

Suddenly the political parties seem to be racing to dismantle the system of county administration. Most of the parties acknowledge that the reform of 1975, providing for direct elections to the county councils, was not a success. Voters are indifferent, and the county council elections have not managed to mobilize any interest at all. Thus the county councils have not provided the democratic advantage that was hoped for. They could more easily be described as a useless appendage. It has also become increasingly clear that the county administrations are not managing to fulfil their functions in an effective way. Hospitals, especially, are suffering from poor organization and regional tugs-of-war. Upper secondary schools need cooperation across municipal borders, especially in the more sparsely populated districts of the country. We have many small counties, and administration is much too costly. Besides, a great deal of work is being duplicated by county administrations and the county governor offices. Reforms are sorely needed, and fortunately it seems that most of the parties have finally realized this.