AGREEMENT LIKELY BY THE WEEKEND (Dagsavisen)

The Labour Party and the centre alliance parties expect to have the budget clarified by tomorrow. Negotiations picked up speed yesterday after Tuesday’s breakdown. "The tone of the negotiations is good," commented Labour’s Hill-Marta Solberg and Christian Democrat leader Kjell Magne Bondevik as they emerged from the negotiations last night. The two parliamentary leaders added that both the Labour Party and the centre parties expect to meet the deadline for negotiations so that the Finance Committee can make its recommendations by 20 November.

TOUGH DEMANDS FROM BONDEVIK AND THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS (Dagbladet)

It looks as though the Government will have a budget to govern with next year, but it will not be the one the Government planned. The centre alliance parties are very satisfied. Paradoxically the Centre Party has achieved much more of a "centrist" profile to the budget than they managed when they were in office themselves. It is now the Christian Democrats turn to push hard for typical Christian Democrat issues. Financial support for the Christian Folk High Schools and the Church of Norway are issues which could cause negotiating difficulties.

FUNDING BOOST TO VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS (Vårt Land)

The centre alliance has presented its own package of demands to the Labour Party which are intended to give a boost to the voluntary sector in next year’s national budget. The centrist budget is divided up according to specific areas, and voluntary work and culture together form a separate package. From what Vårt Land has learned, the budget items are broken right down to organizational level. Apparently there is no listed order of priorities, but the negotiators have discussed among themselves and agreed on the most important issues.

CHILD SUPPORT REGULATIONS FIVE YEARS IN COMING (Aftenposten)

Protests from the National Insurance Administration have blocked proposals for new rules on child support. Karita Bekkemellom Orheim, Minister for Children and Family Affairs, announced that the new rules would be presented to the Storting this autumn, but it has become clear they will not be finalized until 2001. The issue was first raised by Grete Berget (Labour) in 1996. The changes in the rules on child support affect 215,000 children, and the current proposal means that the recipient’s income as well as the amount of time the parent paying child support spends with his or her children will be taken into account when the amount of child support is being calculated. Social Security Offices will therefore have to add up hours and days of parental access. The National Insurance Service has voiced significant opposition to the imposition of this extra workload.

CANNOT AFFORD TO JOIN IN (Dagsavisen)

At least 70,000 children in Norway are not able to participate in the same leisure activities as their friends because their parents cannot afford the fees. "Norway is no paradise and the situation for children is not particularly rosy. The growing gap between rich and poor is leading to children in Norway being discriminated against, and many children are losing rights that other children have," says Gro Bakken, General Secretary of the Norwegian Save the Children Fund.

HYDRO WANTS BIGGER SLICE OF SDFI (NTB)

In an interview broadcast by NRK, Tor Steinum, Norsk Hydro’s Senior Vice President Corporate Communications, has said that being given a portion of the State Direct Financial Interests (SDFI) is as important for Norsk Hydro’s efforts to develop itself into a strong international corporation as it is for Statoil. If the two companies are not treated equally, Norsk Hydro’s competitiveness with regard to Statoil will be undermined. It has been proposed to hand forty per cent of SDFI funds over to the two Norwegian oil companies, with the bulk going to Statoil.

SILENT FOR TWO MONTHS (Dagens Næringsliv)

Kjell Inge Røkke’s Norway Seafoods Holding has not notified the Register of Business Enterprises of the NOK 650 million loan it has received from Orkla. The law states that notification must be made without undue delay. It is now two months since the loan was granted.

WORTH NOTING

1. Clarification of Norway’s relations to the EU’s new common defence organization is not going fast enough. But it is not Norway’s fault, says Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. (Aftenposten)
2. The dividend tax was at the heart of the battle over the budget which was being fought yesterday and last night. This extremely sensitive issue was what prompted the breakdown of negotiations late Tuesday evening. (Verdens Gang)
3. Finance Minister Karl-Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen is concerned that the centre alliance’s tax proposal will prompt shareholders to drain assets from their companies. (Dagens Næringsliv)
4. Next year you will probably be able to shop late into the evening. Children and Family Affairs Minister Karita Bekkemellom Orheim will start a review of shop opening hours next spring with a view to changing the rules. From what Dagsavisen has learned, this will mean shops throughout the country will be able to stay open late into the evening. (Dagsavisen)
5. Traffic at several Norwegian airports will be restricted following safety inspections by the Civil Aviation Authority. Half of the country’s airports have now been checked, and faults have been found at all of them. This may mean that only certain types of aircraft will be allowed to land. (Aftenposten)
6. In a report published by the environmental organization Future in our Hands, Norway’s record on seven out of eleven clauses in the three most important climate agreements ratified by the country are moving in the wrong direction, putting Norway at the bottom of the environmental class. (Dagbladet)
7. Stock market experts are warning small investors who have not previously played the stock market not to rush out and buy Telenor shares as their first investment. Their advice is to start investing in an investment fund. (Aftenposten)
8. Orkla’s investigating committee has indicated that the investigations surrounding Jens P. Heyerdahl could end in court. Everyone who is interviewed is being told that they could be asked to repeat their evidence in front of a judge. (Dagens Næringsliv)
9. Former Conservative politician John Gordon Bernander is one of the hottest candidates to take over the top slot at Storebrand. (Dagens Næringsliv)

TODAY’S COMMENT FROM DAGBLADET

Trade and Industry Minister Grete Knudsen proposes introducing pay guidelines for senior executives of state-owned companies. She herself constitutes the Annual General Meeting of Telenor, which is currently seeking a stock market listing. Telenor’s board of directors recently voted to double chief executive Tormod Hermansen’s salary to NOK 3 million. The pressure to increase executive compensation in state-owned companies is a result of the huge pay rises which the leaders of private industries have awarded themselves over the past few years, with the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) as a passive, but consenting bystander. Ms Knudsen should demand that the NHO takes the initiative to counter the greed which has also spread to state industries. The most effective measure to keep executive salaries at a respectable level is to prevent the gap between private and public sector companies getting too great.

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