The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Oslo Press Division

Norway Daily No. 60/00

Date: 24 March 2000

OPPOSITION SPLIT IN INAUGURAL DEBATE (NTB)

The opposition parties often seemed to focus more on each other than on the Stoltenberg Government during yesterday’s parliamentary debate on the Government’s inaugural address. As leader of the biggest opposition party, Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen was first to take the floor, but he devoted much of his speech to a denunciation of the Conservatives. Centrist coalition leader Kjell Magne Bondevik was next, and like Mr. Hagen, he focussed heavily on the past, including the misfortune which his Government has recently suffered. Much of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s inaugural address dealt with the reorganization of the health care system and the pubic sector in general, but yesterday’s debate seemed hampered by the fact that the legislators have no definite proposals or goals to come to grips with as yet.

KOSMO TO STREAMLINE PUBLIC SECTOR (Verdens Gang)

Jørgen Kosmo has been hand-picked by Jens Stoltenberg to oversee the new Government’s foremost and most prestigious project. Mr. Kosmo’s task will be to streamline the entire public sector. The reforms pledged by Mr. Kosmo include making it easier to dismiss senior officials who fail to achieve their goals boosting efficiency in the public sector and augmenting the authority of directors of nursing homes and tax assessment offices. Persons in positions of leadership should be rewarded for good results and removed if they do not achieve results, says Mr. Kosmo.

HÅGENSEN CANNOT RECALL NORVIK’S AGREEMENT (Aftenposten)

Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) president Yngve Hågensen says he had no part in giving ex-Statoil chief Harald Norvik the retirement package which has recently caught the attention of the public. Mr. Hågensen was on the Statoil board of directors when this agreement was signed, but he has no recollection of the provision which grants Mr. Norvik a generous pension at the age of 53. He finds this sort of deal improper and unwise. Supreme Court barrister Else Bugge Fougner is certain that the board was informed. Ms. Fougner further explains that the intention of the agreement was to prevent Mr. Norvik from leaving Statoil to work for competing corporations.

BONDEVIK CALLS FOR DEFENCE REPORT FROM GODAL (Dagens Næringsliv)

Former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik feels it is important for Defence Minister Bjørn Tore Godal to inform the Storting of the uncertainties involved in the frigate project, and he suggests that a Report to the Storting would be appropriate. Before stepping down, the Bondevik Government announced that the Storting would be informed of the assessed risk that the frigate project’s NOK 12.2 billion cost framework would be exceeded. Defence committee chairman Hans J. Røsjorde (Progress) is confident that the budget will hold, and sees no need for a report to the Storting.

STOCK MARKET TRADING MOVING TO THE INTERNET (Aftenposten)

One-quarter of all stock market transactions on the Oslo Stock Exchange in February were conducted via the Internet. The number of Internet traders has doubled in the course of a few months, and Rold Dammen, general manager of Netfonds, believes Norway now leads the world in Internet-based stock-market trading. Internet trading is favoured chiefly by small investors as a means of saving on fees to brokers. This accounts for a fairly small percentage of the overall volume of trade, but Mr. Dammen says larger investors are conducting a growing amount of their trade via the Internet.

WORTH NOTING

• Minister of Education, Research and Church Affairs Trond Giske criticises his predecessor, Jon Lilletun, for having granted approval to several private schools the same day the Bondevik Government called for a vote of confidence. Mr. Giske observes that Mr. Lilletun ought to have left these approvals to the new Government. Mr. Giske says the new Government will be more restrictive in its administration of the Private School Act. (Aftenposten)
• In a confidential meeting between Kjell Magne Bondevik and Jan Petersen prior to the gas-power crisis, the Conservatives were offered a binding parliamentary collaboration agreement. The offer was flatly rejected, however, as Mr. Petersen was unwilling to save the Bondevik Government on that basis. (Verdens Gang)
• Espen Barth Eide, State Secretary to Foreign Minister Thorbjørn Jagland, is harsh in his criticism of Norway’s and NATO’s war on Yugoslavia. Poor planning and an unsuccessful attempt at crisis management, writes Mr. Eide in observance of the first anniversary of the war. (Vårt Land)
• None of the employee representatives on the Statoil board had opposed Harald Norvik’s gilt-edged severance agreement. Mr. Norvik’s successor, Olav Fjell, has received the same lucrative agreement. (Klassekampen)
• Harald Norvik did not achieve his goal of privatizing Statoil, but he may be more successful with the Oslo Stock Exchange as its newly-appointed chairman of the board. His director’s fee does not affect his golden handshake from Statoil. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Around 7500 Norwegian business executives have some sort of parachute agreement with their employers. If each of them earns one million kroner per year, these agreements represent a total value between NOK 5.5 and 7.5 billion. (Dagbladet)
• The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) will receive a boost from Minister of Labour and Government Administration Jørgen Kosmo in this year’s labour settlement. Mr. Kosmo intends to follow a more restrictive interpretation of the new temporary employment act, which will resolve one of the points of contention between the LO and the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO). (Dagens Næringsliv)
• 5,480 unpaid bills are sent to debt-collection agencies every day. These debts added up to nearly NOK 5 billion last year. (Vårt Land)
• Rising costs have forced the National Gallery to cut back its procurement of central works by Norwegian artists. The budget does not go far when individual works often cost more than one million kroner. The museum has requested NOK 5 million in next year’s budget, compared with the NOK 3.4 million is was given this year. (Aftenposten)
• The thieves who purloined a truck full of Bache Gabrielsen cognac left little behind. Of 33 pallets, only one was left when the truck was located on Wednesday night. (Aftenposten)

TODAY’S COMMENT from Aftenposten

After yesterday’s inaugural debate in the Storting, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg may be thinking that with an opposition like this, his Government will have no problems. Carl I. Hagen, leader of the largest opposition party, was the first speaker, but he opened and concluded his speech with an attack on the Conservatives for having toppled the Bondevik Government, paving the way for the Stoltenberg Government. Mr. Hagen is often accused of populism and a lack of principles. This is not quite fair, as paramount principle which he follows with utter consistency is that when forced to choose between two courses of action, he always does whatever inflicts most damage on the Conservatives. In this respect, yesterday’s performance was sublime. The subject of the debate was supposed to have been the Stoltenberg Government’s inaugural address, but the actual discussion fell rather wide of the mark. So much has been said, written and shouted, both before and after the change in Government, that everyone had something to lament, explain or defend. Because of this, Labour MPs and representatives of the Government had little to do but lean back and simply watch the Conservatives defend themselves, in a fight that was neither fair nor even, against the new strategic alliance in Norwegian politics—the Progress Party and the centrist coalition.