More applicants may be granted asylum because of slow processing (Aftenposten)

The Directorate of Immigration warns that there may substantial delays in the processing of applications for asylum. Because of this situation, asylum-seekers who do not actually fulfil the necessary requirements may be granted asylum anyway. In a letter to the Ministry of Local Government and Labour, the Directorate blamed this situation on slow processing of applications by the police. The police disagree with the Directorate’s view of the matter, and claim that the problem is due to the enormous increase in applications received as a result of the Schengen Agreement. At the moment there are 1000 cases waiting to be processed, and the police estimate that there will be 3000 by this autumn. The Minister of Local Government and Labour will meet with the Minister of Justice on Friday to discuss possible solutions to the problem.

Stoltenberg refuses to discuss Jagland’s letter (Aftenposten)

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg refuses to comment on Labour Party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland’s attack on Conservative Party chairman Jan Petersen. In an open letter yesterday Mr. Jagland accused the Conservatives of cold-heartedness. But there will be no further debate on the subject between the two chairmen, because Mr. Jagland has gone abroad. "He just let fly and then he ran off," said Mr. Petersen.

"Have a nice holiday", says the PM (Dagbladet

Yesterday Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg declined to comment on Labour Party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland’s frontal attack on the Conservative Party. Instead the PM responded by wishing his party colleagues a pleasant holiday. However, Mr. Stoltenberg’s reaction to Mr. Jagland’s letter made Labour politicians feel insecure yesterday. "People in the party like it when the party chairman stirs things up. So it’s strange that the Prime Minister refuses to comment on his letter. The party chairman took advantage of an opportunity to elaborate on the official Labour Party viewpoint as presented by Labour’s National Executive Committee last year. The impression should not have been given that the party chairman and the Prime Minister are not coordinating their actions," said a Labour source.

Full speed ahead towards a petroleum-free future (Dagbladet)

Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, wants to instigate a revolution together with Labour Party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland. The two of them are promoting the establishment of a government-run company that will supply gas to Norwegian homes. Ten to twenty years from now, Norway will be using more hydrogen than petroleum. It will be a country running on clean energy, and earning substantial revenues from technological advances. According to Dagbladet’s sources, this is the gist of a statement to be made today.

National Insurance Fund in favour of sale of Storebrand to Sampo (Verdens Gang)

According to Verdens Gang’s sources, the head of the National Insurance Fund, Tore Lindholt, would prefer to see Storebrand sold to the Finnish financial services company Sampo rather than to Den norske Bank (DnB). Mr. Lindholt is said to have advised his board to this effect prior to its meeting in Oslo today. If the seven politically appointed representatives and two independent members of the board follow Mr. Lindholt’s advice, DnB will be left even more isolated in its struggle to take over Norway’s largest insurance company.

Best in the world (Verdens Gang)

For the first time in history, Norway is at the top of the UN statistics listing the countries that are best to live in. Although many people have felt this to be the case for a long time, this is the first time that Norway has topped the highly regarded UN index measuring the standard of living in all the countries of the world. For the past two years Norway has been in second place.

WORTH NOTING

• "EU enlargement will lead to a marginalization of Norway’s role," said State Secretary Espen Barth Eide. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will coordinate Norway’s EEA work more efficiently in order to prevent Norway from ending up on the sidelines. (Aftenposten)
• Industries that are exposed to competition will shut down at a speed that has not been seen since the 1980s as a result of the Conservative Party’s tax policy, according to Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Thorbjørn Jagland and the Labour Party should stop criticizing the Conservative Party, and concentrate more on talking about their own policies, in the view of Christian Democratic Party chairman Valgerd Svarstad Haugland. (Dagbladet)
• "The Conservatives and Labour have cooperated so well on so many issues that I think it will be difficult for Labour to turn around and disparage them now," said Socialist Left Party chairman Kristin Halvorsen. (Aftenposten)
• Today will be a decisive day for Sampo, the Finnish financial services company, when the boards of Orkla and the National Insurance Fund decide whether to approve Sampo’s bid to acquire Storebrand. (Dagsavisen)

TODAY’S COMMENT from Dagens Næringsliv:

Election campaigns can often be raw and rough, and politicians can take liberties in order to get their points across. But fortunately we don’t often see such crass statements as those propounded by Labour Party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland in Dagbladet yesterday. It’s going too far when you call your opponents "cold-hearted" and indirectly accuse them of ignoring the needs of poor children and the chronically ill. And there is really no excuse for basing these assertions on things that the Conservatives have never said, or that are the direct opposite of what they have said. Mr. Jagland wrote that poor children in Norway won’t be helped by tax reductions. But they will be helped even less by maintaining border controls and agricultural support that make food in Norway 62 per cent more expensive than in the EU. Mr. Jagland has also attacked the Conservative Party’s proposal for cutbacks in development assistance, and in this area it is easy to agree with his criticism. But the difference between being warm-hearted and cold-hearted is not determined by whether 0.7 or 0.8 per cent of the GNP is devoted to development assistance. Either both figures are cold-hearted, or neither is. It’s a shame that Mr. Jagland, who is chairman of what used to be Norway’s largest political party, is resorting to such vulgar, illogical and foolish arguments to get his point across.