PARTY LEADERS PREVAIL (Aftenposten)

14 of the 20 members of the Labour Party executive committee backed the proposal entailing that the state should take over operation of Norway’s hospitals from the counties. Our commentator calls the executive committee’s recommendation a textbook example of politics as the "art of the possible". "They were quite lucid on how the hospitals ought to be organized, but correspondingly vague in their remarks concerning the future of the counties. But that was no accident," he writes.

NEW EU MEMBERSHIP BATTLE AHEAD (Dagsavisen)

The Labour executive committee accepts by a large majority that Norway may apply for EU membership after next year’s general election. Elections analyst Henry Valen views this vote in the committee as the starting signal for another EU membership race—a race the pro-membership side will lose. The majority also favours state administration of the public hospitals. "This will give us streamlined counties," says Labour Party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland. The party takes its official stand on both issues at the national convention in November.

LABOUR HOPING FOR A POLITICAL MIRACLE (Vårt Land)

Quarrels among Labour politicians are not what is driving voters away. They are leaving because they’ve got little interest in the issues being pursued by the party, according to Anders Todal-Jensen, professor of political science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. "Labour is floundering in a backwater with no clear sense of direction. It has lost its distinguishing features, and that’s bad," says Prof. Todal-Jensen, who views falling ratings as a greater problem for the party than the turbulence accompanying the formulation of the party programme now being forged by the governing party.

NORWAY WAITING FOR LOCAL PARTY BOSSES TO MAKE UP THEIR MINDS (Dagbladet)

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland’s "Government Project" has left the Storting and the Norwegian people up in the air. Nobody will know what the Government plans to do until the local party bosses gather at the national convention in November. Contrary to standard political practice, Mr. Stoltenberg has launched a number of projects aimed at reforming Norway’s public administration without first having secured the backing of his own party. This has unavoidably stirred up trouble with political opponents, and now the whole country must wait for Labour to make up its mind at the upcoming national convention.

NORWAY TO CALL FOR FULL DISCLOSURE OF RUSSIAN PLANS (Aftenposten)

Norwegian authorities will demand full disclosure of the Russian Northern Fleet’s intentions regarding the hulk of the Kursk. The wreckage is in an area under joint Norwegian-Russian fisheries administration, and any leakage of radioactive material could reach the Norwegian coast very quickly. The crisis management group for nuclear accidents in peacetime has been meeting daily since the Kursk drama started unfolding. The group has directed the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority to consider which demands and conditions Norway may put forward concerning subsequent action on the wreck.

STATOIL VALUE CLIMBING SHARPLY (Dagens Næringsliv)

Statoil has increased NOK 42 billion in value in the past year. DnB Markets, a brokerage house, believes high oil prices and the strength of the dollar have pushed the value of the state-owned oil company up to NOK 168 billion. The brokerage house does not believe Statoil would be worth more than NOK 125 billion if introduced to the stock market now. DnB Markets has been providing the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy with value assessments on Statoil for several years to be used as a measure of how well Statoil is managing the enormous assets under its control.

NEW HOMOSEXUALITY ROUND IN CHURCH OF NORWAY (Vårt Land)

The Church of Norway’s Doctrinal Commission is prepared to examine the full extent of the homosexuality issue. Prof. Torleiv Austad, who chairs the commission, is willing to launch a full theological analysis of homosexuality if that is what the Church wants. He believes commission members themselves hold diverging views on the subject. The bishops will hold a meeting to discuss the matter tomorrow.

WORTH NOTING

• Russian authorities will retrieve all bodies from the Kursk and are asking for continued assistance from Norway. Russian representatives met with representatives from Stolt Offshore, a Norwegian company. (Aftenposten)
• Eide Maritime Services, a salvaging company, finally managed to raise the wreckage of the Sleipner from the depths and place it on a barge yesterday. (Dagbladet)
• The preschool teachers’ strike cost the Norwegian Union of Teachers NOK 23 million, but the teachers won only NOK 2 million per year in collective raises. Union president Gjertrud Eggen feels the strike was worth it. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• If prices remain at today’s levels, revenues from the sale of oil and gas from the Norwegian sector will reach NOK 3.3 trillion over the next ten years. This is the firm conviction of Statoil group CEO Olav Fjell, who calls for investments on the order of NOK 1 trillion. (Dagsavisen)
• Nasjonal Alliansen (National Alliance) and Norsk Folkeparti (Norwegian People’s Party), two parties on the radical right, have joined forces to form one party. This took place in Risør this past weekend as huge crowds massed in Oslo to demonstrate their disgust with the radical right. (Nationen)

TODAY’S COMMENT from Vårt Land

The Red Army halted the advance of the German forces at Kursk in a major battle that was one of the turning points of the Second World War. A submarine of the same name now lies at the bottom of the sea, full of water and bodies—an unpleasant symbol of how things have gone with the Soviet Union and Russia. The manner in which the Russian government has handled this tragedy has not made a good impression nor has it inspired confidence. There are no shortcuts that will put Russia on a better footing; it will take time to turn Russia into a normal democratic state able to offer its population decent standards of living. What is worse, though, is that the armed forces are in such a state that the Russian Federation may be a greater threat than the Soviet Union ever was. The tragedy of the Kursk has created a situation from which greater trust and closer cooperation could evolve. But it cost 118 people their lives.

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