Norway Daily No. 168/02
Historisk arkiv
Publisert under: Regjeringen Bondevik II
Utgiver: Utenriksdepartementet
Nyhet | Dato: 05.09.2002 | Sist oppdatert: 21.10.2006
The Royal Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Oslo
Press Division - Editor: Mette S. Øwre
Norway Daily No. 168/02
Date: 5 September 2002
Ex-refugees must pay Norwegian state NOK 10 million (Aftenposten)
Around 1,000 refugees who have received financial assistance
from the Norwegian authorities to return home, but who have
violated the conditions on which the money was granted, must settle
their debts with the State Agency for the Recovery of Fines,
Damages and Costs. The Immigration Directorate (UDI) is owed NOK
10.5 million, and has decided to recover the cash. The majority of
the funds are owed by Kosovo Albanians, while a small amount is
owed by other refugees from the former Yugoslavia. 6,173 refugees
were evacuated from Kosovo to Norway in a major operation during
the spring of 1999. After peace was restored to the country the
Norwegian state offered NOK 15,000 to each person who returned to
their war-torn homeland. The majority went home, but 1,411 later
came back to Norway.
Four out of ten will get smaller pension (Aftenposten)
If the proposed new pension scheme is adopted, more than a
million people currently in employment will have less money to
spend when they retire. People on middle incomes will lose around
NOK 10,000 a year. It is the richest section of society which will
benefit most from the reform. The Pension Commission’s proposal has
provoked strong reactions in the Labour Party. Social policy
spokesman, Håkon Bjarne Hanssen, has warned that there will be a
lively debate on this issue at the party’s annual conference in
November. On Monday, fellow Labour representative on the Storting’s
Social Affairs Committee, Britt Hildeng, had already publicly
hammered the proposal to replace the current early retirement
scheme (AFP) with a flexible voluntary retirement age from 62 to
70.
Pension reform attacked as male chauvinist (Dagsavisen)
The proposed pension reform will give a smaller pension to
those who work only a few years and who earn a low salary.
According to the union movement, this will hit women, the low paid
and part-time workers. "This proposal must make women shake their
fists in anger," said Anders Folkestad of the Confederation of
Higher Education Unions, Norway (UHO), whose members include
nurses, ergonomists and physiotherapists. Bjørg Listein, deputy
leader of the Norwegian Association of Health and Social Care
Personnel (NHS), described the Pension Commission’s perspective as
"male chauvinist".
Minister calls for union cooperation on pay (Dagens Næringsliv)
Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik has invited Gerd-Liv
Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions
(LO) and other leading figures on both sides of industry to a
meeting of the Government’s consultative committee on Monday. The
topic under discussion will be the crisis in industry and the need
for a new cooperation agreement on pay. Labour and Government
Administration Minister Victor D. Norman will also attend the
meeting. He wants to introduce a scheme whereby employer and union
leaders as well as the Government come together ahead of the annual
wage negotiations and try to agree on a framework for the year’s
wage rises.
Government set to lose NOK 900 million (Verdens Gang)
Tightening up the tax rules for the use of company cars was
supposed to bring the cash rolling into the Government’s coffers.
Instead the Government looks set to lose almost NOK 1 billion on
the scheme this year. The sale of company cars has plummeted after
the tax increases were announced. And many of those who still have
a company car choose to buy a cheaper model. Company cars are quite
simply too expensive. The Government is therefore losing out on
huge sums in car taxes.
Mud wrestling at Orkla (Aftenposten)
The power struggle at Orkla took a dramatic turn yesterday.
Shareholder Stein Erik Hagen has now gone so far as to name former
Orkla chief executive Jens P. Heyerdahl as one of the people behind
a smear campaign against himself, Christen Sveaas and Tore
Lindholt, chief executive of the National Insurance Scheme Fund.
Yesterday the three victims of the smear campaign met Orkla’s
senior management. "I had received information that it was correct
to bring to the attention of Orkla’s management," said Stein Erik
Hagen after yesterday’s meeting. In a leader Aftenposten writes:
"The battle for Orkla resembles a bout of mud wrestling. We
onlookers can choose between shock and amazement." It was the
tabloid newspaper Verdens Gang which reported the dirty tactics
being used against Sveaas, Hagen and Lindholt in its Saturday
edition.
NOK 475 billion melted into thin air (Dagens Næringsliv)
The Oslo Stock Exchange fell yesterday to its lowest level
since December 1998. Over NOK 475 billion has evaporated from the
country’s listed companies since the stock exchange’s all-time-high
of 14 September 2000. Both institutional and private investors are
now throwing shares out of their portfolios. Many have long since
put their money in the bank.
Keiko allowed to stay in Norwegian fjord (Dagsavisen)
People are still flocking in droves to Skålvikfjorden on the
Norwegian west coast to see the world’s most famous killer whale.
And Keiko is not in the least bit averse to the enormous amount of
attention he has been receiving. Scientists have now decided that
the killer whale can stay in Norway. "But on condition that he
manages to catch his own food. Keiko must be able to fend for
himself in future," said Colin Bairt. The Canadian scientist has
been following Keiko with a satellite tracking device. "We are
prepared to block off part of the fjord for Keiko," said Pål Ola
Sætre of the Fisheries Ministry.
Worth Noting
- Today’s children, teenagers and 20-40 year-olds will live
longer and must therefore work one to three years longer to get the
same pension as today’s 60 year-olds. Otherwise they should receive
a smaller pension, according to the Pensions Commission.
(Dagens Næringsliv) - According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal
Court (ICC), Norway is obliged to hand over any Norwegian citizen,
including the king, to the ICC. But the Norwegian constitution
grants the reigning monarch absolute exemption from prosecution.
"Ratification of the Rome Statute violates the Norwegian
constitution," said professor Eivind Smith.
(Klassekampen) - 25,000 current and former Royal Norwegian Navy personnel are to
take part in a survey which will, among other things, log
incidences of cancer and birth defects. The reason for the survey
is the discovery of birth defects in children born to men who had
served aboard the royal naval vessel,
KNMKvikk. Children whose parents were employed at the
telecommunications workshop at the Haakonsvern naval base in Bergen
have also been born with birth defects, and there is a worryingly
large number of cases of cancer among former employees of the
coastal defence installations at Rødbergodden and Meløyvær in North
Norway.
(NRK/NTB) - One in six of the seamen killed while working in the merchant
navy, dies as a result of an accident during lifeboat drills,
according to a British report. An average of 24 lifeboat accidents
a year have been reported aboard Norwegian ships in the period
1996-1999.
(Bergens Tidende) - Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss says that Norwegian industry
is exaggerating the difficulties it is facing and is engaged in a
lobbying campaign ahead of next year’s budget. Jobs have always
been lost, says Mr Foss.
(Dagens Næringsliv) - The provision of postal services has been profitable for those
supermarkets which have introduced the scheme. Their turnover is
four times higher than those supermarkets without postal services,
according to a survey.
(Nationen) - Traditional names will disappear from the Norwegian legal
system from 1 January next year. The terms Probate and Bankruptcy
Court, Magistrate’s Court, Court of Execution and Enforcement,
Court of Protection and Court of Appraisement will no longer be
used. "All courts of first instance will simply be called District
Courts regardless of what kind of cases they hear," writes the
Ministry of Justice in a circular to all other government
departments.
(NTB)
Today’s comment from Vårt Land
The ratio of pensioners to people in paid employment is
getting steadily larger, and this trend will only accelerate in the
years to come. How are we to organize our state pension scheme in
the face of this development? An official commission is working on
this issue and delivered its preliminary report yesterday. The
commission asks a lot of questions, but gives few answers. We do
not need an in-depth analysis to outline the major problems. The
first is how we can get more people to work longer before they
retire, without simultaneously punishing those who need to stop
working because they are genuinely worn out. The other problem is
whether the state should content itself with securing a basic
income for all, or if we should continue to base ourselves on the
idea that all of us will be able to manage on the state pension
scheme alone. In the latter case there will need to be greater
differentiation within the state pension scheme. People have become
more concerned with securing their own old-age, and many also have
the financial resources to do so. To work towards a situation in
which everyone is content to receive the state pension alone is
probably a lost cause. There must be room for people to take more
private responsibility for their own financial security in old age.
However, it is important to retain the state pension scheme as a
good and generous system which provides the vast majority of people
with an adequate living. Achieving that alone could be a major
challenge in the years ahead.