GOVERNMENT TO PROPOSE INCREASE IN IMMIGRATION (Dagsavisen)

Sylvia Brustad, Minister for Local Government and Regional Development, is to lay before the Storting a proposal to increase the level of immigration. The proposal may be presented as early as next spring. This is a result of the budget agreement between the ruling Labour Party and the centre alliance. The aim is that increased immigration should alleviate the shortage of Norwegian workers in the labour force. Chairman of the Liberal Party Lars Sponheim is happy with the Labour Party’s change of policy. "The Government has committed itself to presenting the proposal to increase the pool of available workers. If they do not agree to relax the immigration rules, they will be breaking the budget agreement with the centre," says Mr Sponheim.

DRINK DRIVE PASSENGERS TO RECEIVE COMPENSATION (Aftenposten)

Following a judgment by the Supreme Court, individuals who are injured while passengers in a car driven by someone under the influence of alcohol will get full compensation. The case was brought before the Supreme Court at record speed after a lower court reduced the compensation awarded to a 23-year-old woman who had been injured when the car in which she was a passenger was involved in an accident. The driver of the car was drunk. The existing Norwegian regulations are also in violation of EEA laws. However, the Ministry of Justice will be circulating a White Paper on changes to the Automobile Liability Act for public comment before Christmas.

SEVERAL HUNDRED MAY RECEIVE COMPENSATION (Dagsavisen)

Labour Party MP Sigurd Grytten says that the Government must accept its share of the blame for the fact that several hundred traffic accident victims have not received compensation due to the authorities’ incorrect interpretation of EEA law. Minister of Justice Hanne Harlem does not accept that the Government is liable to compensate traffic accident victims. "Up to now there has been no foundation in Norwegian law which would allow a person to sue the Government over incorrect implementation of Norway’s international obligations," she says.

HOUSE PRICE FORECASTS WAY OFF BASE (Dagens Næringsliv)

Do not listen to the housing market experts if you are considering buying or selling a house or flat. The housing market experts are often way off base when they predict which way house prices will go. The list of experts whose predictions for developments in the housing market have been mistaken is a long one.

NORWAY HARDEST HIT (Verdens Gang)

If the construction of a new gas-fired power station in Skogn, North-Trøndelag, is given the go-ahead next week, no other country in the world will have a harder time fulfilling its obligations under the Kyoto agreement. This is the claim of the Bellona Environment Foundation’s leader Frederic Hauge and Lars Haltbrekken from the organization Joint Action against Gas-Fired Power Stations.

SEVERE FLOODING AND FURTHER LANDSLIDES EXPECTED (Aftenposten/Dagsavisen)

The Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) has established a round-the-clock alert in case of landslides. The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Administration (NVE) has predicted severe flooding in large parts of the South East over the next few days. The water level in the River Aker, which runs through Oslo, is so high it can no longer be regulated. There has just been too much rain. There is a growing danger that the river banks will collapse under pressure from the fast-flowing water.

WORTH NOTING

1. Up until now the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) has been extremely sceptical with regard to an increase in the number of foreign job-seekers being allowed into the country. LO’s negative attitude has made it difficult for the Labour Party to relax the immigration rules. But now even LO is starting to change its view. (Dagsavisen)
2. The Norwegian Union of Railway Workers does not agree with the management consultants who believe that the recent highly critical report on the state of corporate health at NSB could push the country’s national railway company even further into the mire. "It is better to get everything out in the open than to sweep it under the carpet," says railway union chairman Ove Dalsheim. (Dagbladet)
3. Billionaire supermarket owner Stein Erik Hagen is threatening to sue the Norwegian Competition Authority after a survey it carried out showed the Rimi and ICA supermarket chains to have the highest prices. (Verdens Gang)
4. Telenor will achieve its target of selling 100,000 shares to ordinary Norwegians. But Tormod Hermansen & Co. will not succeed in getting many first-time investors on board. The typical Telenor investor already has shareholdings, earns a lot of money and is well into middle age. (Dagens Næringsliv)
5. Three of the very biggest investors on the Oslo Stock Exchange – the National Insurance Scheme Fund, Storebrand and Orkla – support the proposal to force anonymous shareholders to reveal their identities at an early stage. (Aftenposten)
6. Last week Orkla’s chairman Finn A. Hvistendahl was preparing to hold a board meeting to discuss chief executive Jens P. Heyerdahl’s future. The plans were put on ice just before the weekend. (Verdens Gang)
7. The OECD is predicting that Norwegian businesses will have to cope with reduced competitiveness and smaller market shares, but high oil prices will ensure a substantial trade surplus. (Aftenposten)
8. The reservoirs are full to capacity, but there may still be a shortage of electricity this winter and higher electricity prices. If the worst happens some districts may even experience power cuts. (Dagsavisen)

TODAY’S COMMENT FROM VERDENS GANG

The Annual General Meeting of the "No to the EU" organization, which was held at the weekend, did not produce much that was new. Members were encouraged to continue the struggle and voiced a resounding no to anything connected with the EU. The organization also said that Norway should pull out of the EEA. They were not sure exactly when we should pull out, but they are planning to have a strategy ready by the end of the year. Today European countries, including Albania, are literally queuing up to join the European Union. The EU is not a cosy rich-man’s club which primarily serves the interests of the upper classes. The cooperation is becoming more and more wide-ranging and covers an increasing number of areas. The latest of these is military and security cooperation. Nothing is more appropriate, given that the foundation of today’s EU was a commitment between European countries to put an end to the wars between the continent’s great powers through cooperation. And on that level the cooperation has been successful, no matter what "No to the EU" and their supporters believe. We do not doubt that "No to the EU" would like to "disinvent" the whole EU set-up if they could. But no matter how strongly worded the resolutions adopted by their Annual General Meetings are, "No to the EU" cannot abolish the increasingly close political and economic cooperation, which practically the whole of Europe now feels it benefits from being part of and further developing.

NOREG