The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Oslo Press Division

Norway Daily No. 54/00

Date: 16 March 2000

LABOUR YOUTH INSISTS ON A SAY (Dagsavisen)

Jens Stoltenberg has already announced that Norwegians will notice that the new Government is more positive to collaboration with the EU than was the centrist Government. The Labour Youth League will do its best to restrain this process, however, and will fight to have opponents of EU membership included in the new Government. The youth organization therefore calls on Mr. Stoltenberg to include Trond Giske and Grethe Fossum in his new Government. Both oppose EU membership and thermal power plants based on current gas-burning technology. If Mr. Stoltenberg accepts these two, he will have two ministers to keep in line who are in fundamental disagreement with him on major issues.

GOVERNMENT SOON READY (Aftenposten)

Jens Stoltenberg’s new Government lineup is nearly complete, but changes are still possible. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Bjørn Tore Godal is almost certain to be on the team, but no one knows which position he will play. Siri Bjerke, former State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry, is a candidate for Minister of Development Cooperation. Among the hottest names is ambassador Mona Juel, deemed the ideal state secretary for Foreign Affairs, but it is not certain that she wants the job.

BONDEVIK SET RECORD WITH 51 COMMISSIONS (Aftenposten)

One record the Bondevik Government may boast of is the creation of 51 commissions and committees in the course of its two years in service—twice as many as the last two Labour Governments created in five years. Prime Minister-designate Jens Stoltenberg will have to work with committees appointed by the Bondevik Government for a long time to come. Bernt Aardal, senior researcher at the Institute for Social Research, believes this was a deliberate strategy on the part of the Bondevik Government for leaving its mark on Norwegian politics.

BRUSTAD: CENTRE LET THINGS SLIDE (Nationen)

Sylvia Brustad, one of the prime candidates for Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, feels Odd Roger Enoksen has left the house in disorder. She puts the blame on the Centre Party for the deficit in the municipal sector which may reach a dizzying NOK 12 billion. Things have deteriorated year by year with the Centre Party, she says. Ms. Brustad acknowledges that it will be a tough job for the new Government to get the municipal economy back into line.

HOSPITALS ACTIVE—COUNTIES AILING (Dagens Næringsliv)

Hospitals are treating too many patients in comparison with the Storting’s targets. They are too productive, and this is the chief cause of the huge deficit in the county sector. Mr. Stoltenberg’s new Government will probably have to allocate a NOK 1 to 2 billion hospital crisis package on 1 March.

NORSK HYDRO DEFIES GOVERNMENT (Aftenposten)

Norsk Hydro’s administration disregarded clear signals from the Government not to sell Hydro Seafood to foreign buyers. But Hydro president Egil Myklebust lashes out at politicians who want to block the sale: It is they who disregard the rules repeatedly discussed by the Storting concerning the role of the state as governing power and the role of the state as corporate owner, says Mr. Myklebust.

WE’VE GOT THE MONEY TO BUY (Dagsavisen)

Norwegian interests are ready to spend over NOK 3.5 billion to keep Hydro Seafood in Norway. They are now counting on the new Labour Government to halt the sale to Dutch Nutreco. I hope the new Government will take a closer look at this matter, says Magnus Stangeland, a former Centre politician who is now president of the Norwegian fish-farming alliance, PacPro, which put in an unsuccessful bid for Hydro Seafood.

POWERED BY OIL (Dagens Næringsliv)

Norway’s balance of trade showed a NOK 16.1 billion surplus in February. Crude oil and gas exports accounted for NOK 20.5 billion and traditional goods NOK 16.8 billion. Imports amounted to NOK 21.2 billion.

WORTH NOTING

• No one has turned me down yet. I’ve now got a clear impression of what the Government will look like, said Jens Stoltenberg last night. He would not say how many people he had contacted, however. (Dagbladet)
• Conservative Party chairman Jan Petersen has no plans to position his party any closer to the parties of the political centre between now and the next general election. We have no need to grovel for the coalition parties, says Mr. Petersen. (Vart Land)
• According to Newsweek, Norwegian children fathered by German soldiers during World War II had a rougher time of it than children of German soldiers in other countries. The files on the Lebensborn children were not destroyed at the end of the war by the Germans in Norway, and both mothers and children were subject to abuse after the war. (Aftenposten)
• When Director General of Public Construction and Property Halvor Stormoen awarded a million-kroner contract to a new consulting firm operated by a former close colleague, he did so against the advice of his own staff. (Verdens Gang)
• Norway’s new military strategy is brilliant! Former enemy officers are being paid to leave the military and go into business: former officers of the Russian North Fleet are now attending courses in business administration at the University of Murmansk based on study programmes from Bodø College and financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence. (Verdens Gang)

TODAY’S COMMENT from Nationen

The opening sentence on local economy from the chapter on welfare policy in the Bondevik Government’s inaugural statement reads: A centrist Government will rectify the long-standing disparity between the duties imposed on municipal governments (by the central government) and the funds granted to perform them. When the Bondevik Government steps down tomorrow, Norway’s municipal economy will be deep in a crisis of unprecedented magnitude. The latest figures from the Norwegian Association of Local Authorities (KS) show local government to be NOK 12 billion in the red, which ought to be a matter of deep embarrassment to a centrist Government. One of the Bondevik Government’s clearest messages upon taking office was that it would give local government a better deal—but it never delivered the goods. Considering the Government’s parliamentary basis, though, the opposition can hardly claim innocence either. They are all to blame. The deficit was already a fact under Gro Harlem Brundtland’s Government, when a long series of major reforms placed a tremendous burden on the municipalities, all imposed by the authority of the Storting. And then came the wage settlement in 1998, which was partially negotiated by the central government. As for Labour, the only thing this party has to hide behind is a measly billion kroner it insisted on squeezing into the budget compromise. But who knows—perhaps this is evidence that Labour has been planning to topple the Government since last autumn?