Norway facing five-fold increase in price of EEA membership (Aftenposten/Saturday)

The price Norway pays for access to the EU’s single market could be more than doubled when the European Union expands eastwards from 2004. Full membership of the EU would have cost Norway NOK 15 billion, according to Norwegian authorities. Following the proposed EU expansion, EEA membership will give Norwegian businesses access to a market of 500 million people. "It is only to be expected that the EU will make a specific request, since expansion also gives us significant benefits," said Jon Vea of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO). He believes many EU countries consider Norway to be a free-loader.

Norwegian consumers win support from the EU (Dagsavisen)

The EU is improving on the Sale of Goods Act. This will also have an impact on Norwegian consumers. It will now be easier for customers to complain about products which are not up to scratch. The EU directive provides a complaints period of at least two months after the fault or deficiency in the product has been discovered. And it is possible to extend the period even further. The Norwegian Sale of Goods Act uses the term ‘within a reasonable length of time’, which usually means two to three weeks.

Jobless civil servants to get NOK 290 million (Aftenposten)

Payments to people who have lost their civil service jobs are growing increasingly onerous. From last year to this, payments have increased by NOK 44 million, to a total of NOK 290 million. Ordinary people lose their right to unemployment benefits after three years. Civil servants over 50 are guaranteed continued salary payments right up until they reach retirement age.

Tired Jagland calls on Labour to choose a leader (Aftenposten)

This summer Thorbjørn Jagland said he would stand for reelection as Labour Party chairman. Now he is not so clear. In a letter to the party’s national executive committee on Friday, in which he referred to recent leaks to the media, Mr Jagland used words like ‘starting to get tired’ and ‘losing inspiration’. In an interview with Aftenposten he gave the impression that the Labour’s poor election result has created a new situation, which means that the party’s organization must discuss every possibility.

Choose a leader (Dagbladet/Sunday)

The Labour Party must sort out the confusion surrounding its leadership situation. If it does not do it now, the party will suffer at the hands of the voters, according to a number of management and organizational consultants. According to Per Anders Nordengen of the consulting company, Psykologibistand, an indistinct political platform and a confused leadership situation are causing problems for the Labour Party. "If you ask ordinary people who the Labour Party’s leader is, they will produce one, two or three names," he added.

Jagland called on to show some respect (Dagsavisen)

Kristin Halvorsen, chairman of the Socialist Left Party, thinks that she and Thorbjørn Jagland could come to an agreement on foreign policy. But she refuses to be part of a government which applies for EU membership or goes to war without a UN mandate. Ms Halvorsen admits that the foreign policy gap between the Socialist Left Party and Labour is so great that it could cause problems for any spirit of cooperation. Nevertheless, she believes that the two parties are capable of working out a common foreign policy platform.

Banks drag feet over interest rate cuts (Dagbladet)

Your bank is not going to cut interest rates straight away. Some banks are going to wait for six weeks before cutting your interest payments. And certain banks, like Storebrand Bank, have not even decided when they are going to make the cut. Fokus Bank is the best of the bunch and is lowering interest rates from the New Year.

Worth Noting

• In the past 20 years the pupil/teacher ratio has been halved. In 1980 each teacher had an average of 19 pupils, while the figure for last year was eight. At the same time schoolchildren are doing worse and worse in tests of their knowledge. (Nationen)
• Because of the extended cash benefit for children under three, the Government now says it is sufficient to provide day nursery places for 70 per cent of the children in each year group. This could mean the axe for the 44,000 new nursery places proposed by the Stoltenberg government. (Dagsavisen/Saturday)
• When it became clear that the Government was to take over the hospitals, the local investment requirement shot up as if by magic. The total investment wish-list exceeds NOK 50 billion, thereby outstripping any previous hospital investment budget. (Aftenposten)
• Rogaland public prosecutor Tormod Haugnes is calling for all Norwegians to be included in a DNA register. This highly controversial proposal is expected to prompt fierce debate. (Verdens Gang)
• Bus drivers, cleaners and shop assistants, not stockbrokers and lawyers, are the ones most likely to suffer a heart attack. The risk of dying from the disease is higher if your wages are low. (Dagsavisen/Sunday)
• Norwegian children’s teeth are rotting away. Shock figures published in a recent report from the Norwegian Board of Health show that the number of children without cavities is getting progressively smaller. Four out of ten five-year-olds now have holes in their teeth. (Verdens Gang/Sunday)
• In 2003 Statoil will be able to deliver environment-friendly petrol with almost no sulphur. But the petrol will not be on sale at Norwegian petrol stations. It would not make economic sense. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• It cost over NOK 900 million to carry out the partial privatization of Statoil and sell state-owned North Sea assets. (Aftenposten/Sunday)
• Telenor’s chief executive, Tormod Hermansen, is under pressure from the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime. It has now been revealed that the company set up secret discount deals between two subsidiaries. The deals were to have been abandoned if they were discovered. (Dagens Næringsliv/Saturday)
• When the Christian Democrats’ national executive committee meets tomorrow, party chairman Valgerd Svarstad Haugland will not bow to demands for rules which exclude gays from taking elected office within the party. It seems as though the Christian Democratic leadership hopes the party faithful will be reassured by a good explanation of why it is not possible to make demands of elected party officials with regard to their sexual proclivities. (Vårt Land)
• Every month 33,000 Norwegians take time off work or school because of headaches or migraines. (Dagbladet)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

This autumn we have again witnessed a number of examples of how difficult it is for Norway to defend our interests in the face of the EU from our half-in, half-out position derived from the EEA Agreement, which was entered into under other political and economic circumstances than those in operation in today’s Europe. The pressure exerted by the EU in recent months shows once again that Norway can best secure its vital interests as a full member of the European Union. But the possibility of this happening is extremely limited during the current parliamentary term. We have a government which would be signing its own death-warrant if membership were to become a real possibility, and a Storting in which the Labour Party and the Conservatives – the two parties which must take the lead in favour of membership if battle on the issue were to be joined for the third time – no longer have a majority. Under such circumstances it would take an enormous amount for the mood of the electorate to swing in favour of EU membership, and that is just what would be needed before the issue could again be put on the political agenda. In the meantime the Norwegian authorities must do what they can to resist ever stronger pressure from the EU. And Norwegian taxpayers can only sit and complain about having to pay increasing amounts to a European community over which they themselves have thrown away the possibility of exercising any influence.