Government hopes concessions will bring Progress Party to negotiating table (Dagsavisen)

The ruling coalition parties decided yesterday to adjust their budget proposal by NOK 500 million to accommodate the demands of the Progress Party and bring it to the negotiating table. Before it was prepared to even begin talking to the Government, the Progress Party had demanded the reinstatement of the reimbursement schemes for seamen and ferry companies. Now that the Government has met this demand, negotiations on the budget as a whole can now begin in earnest. The other opposition parties in the Storting have said that the Government’s generosity towards the Progress Party shows clearly who it is expecting to provide the support it needs to win a parliamentary majority for next year’s budget.

Seamen’s union not satisfied (NTB)

The Government has withdrawn its proposal to abolish the special reimbursement schemes for seamen, but the Norwegian Seamen’s Union is still not satisfied. "We are happy with the Government’s decision regarding the ferry companies, but in reality conditions for the rest of the merchant fleet have been worsened," said Erik Bratvold, leader of the Norwegian Seamen’s Union in an interview with NRK. "We will not be satisfied until a net wages scheme in line with that in place in other EU countries, primarily Denmark and Sweden, has been introduced," said Mr Bratvold. The reimbursement scheme was originally introduced to compensate for the high salaries paid to Norwegian seamen. The aim was to avoid seamen from low-cost countries like the Philippines from taking all the jobs on board ship.

Progress Party demands cut in alcohol taxes (Verdens Gang)

The Progress Party is demanding that taxes on spirits be slashed by 25 per cent next year. This is one of the demands that Siv Jensen will bring to the negotiating table when discussions to reach an agreement on next year’s budget start today. The Progress Party’s goal is crystal clear. Taxes on wines and spirits should be cut to Swedish levels in the next two years. According to calculations made by the Ministry of Finance, a reduction bringing taxes half way to Swedish levels would mean NOK 649 million less in state revenues. Following a meeting of the Progress Party’s parliamentary group last night, VG received confirmation that the party wants half of this reduction to be implemented as early as next year. The ruling coalition parties will today receive a long list of demands from the Progress Party, including the abandonment of plans to reintroduce prescription charges for elderly and disabled people suffering from chronic illnesses and to cut the NOK 4,000 grant to help pay for funeral costs. The cost of the Progress Party’s demands totals around NOK 10 billion.

Tough budget demands from Progress Party (Dagsavisen)

The Progress Party is demanding that private companies should be allowed to tender for all local government services. The result could be wholesale privatization. The proposal is one of several demands which the party is making in return for its support of the Government’s budget. The list of Progress Party demands was agreed at a meeting of the party’s MPs yesterday afternoon. From what Dagsavisen is given to understand, the right to tender is on the list, and will be one of the demands the Progress Party makes when negotiations with the Government start today. Local Government and Regional Affairs Minister Erna Solberg has said a number of times that local authorities should use competitive tendering much more actively than they do today. Ministry officials are also supportive of the proposal to make it easier for private companies to compete for the provision of local government services.

Opposition attacks Petersen (Dagbladet)

The opposition has attacked Foreign Minister Jan Petersen (Con) for what they describe as his sloppy and superficial report to the Storting on the tense situation with regard to Iraq and other international crises. "I am disappointed that the Foreign Minister did not give a more thorough analysis of why the world situation has become so dramatic. He should have put the Iraq crisis much more firmly in the context of the Middle East conflict," said Labour leader Thorbjørn Jagland, chairman of the Storting’s Foreign Affairs Committee. "It is surprising that Mr Petersen in a special report on Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East did not analyze or discuss the problems inherent in the situation. He avoided the central issues of the debate," said Kristin Halvorsen, leader of the Socialist Left Party. "Mr Petersen’s report was disappointingly superficial and did not express his own standpoint. He totally avoided discussing the new US strategy in which raw military might is to be the guiding principle and which is diametrically opposed to the principles of international law," said Åslaug Haga, deputy leader of the Centre Party.

International agenda ignored (Klassekampen)

Foreign Minister Jan Petersen ignored the international agenda in his report to the Storting yesterday. Sceptics of a war with Iraq looked in vain for the Minister’s own analysis of the situation. Mr Petersen did not signal any standpoint with regard to the debate on a new Security Council resolution currently raging in other countries, based on the different proposals put forward by the USA and France. According to Mr Petersen, Norway will not take a position until the five permanent members of the Security Council have agreed on the wording of a proposed resolution.

Christian Democrat deputy leaders could be ousted (Verdens Gang)

The Christian Democratic Party’s Oslo branch is threatening to oust both of the party’s deputy leaders in order to put some fresh faces in the leadership team. First deputy leader Einar Steensnæs has said he is willing to step down. The Christian Democrats have created their own deputy leadership row following the comments made by party chairman Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, who said that one of the party’s leadership trio should not be a member of the Government. Today all three of them are. Ms Svarstad Haugland is Cultural Affairs Minister, deputy leader Einar Steensnæs is Petroleum and Energy Minister and second deputy leader Odd Anders With is State Secretary at the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs.

Cost of Norway’s EEA ticket could rise sharply (Aftenposten)

Norway will have to pay through the nose – probably far more than NOK 1 billion – for an extension of the EEA Agreement when EU membership rises from 15 to 25 countries. The European Commission has now started a process that will probably end with Norway having to pay an annual NOK 1 billion in return for an extended EEA Agreement. The EU’s demands will be of a quite different order of magnitude than they have previously been when negotiations on a revision of the vital EEA Agreement get underway this autumn and winter. At the same time an extension of the EEA Agreement has prompted unease in Iceland, which, according to one centrally-placed Icelandic source, is increasingly irritated by Norway’s signals that the country is prepared to pay a much higher contribution to the EU.

Minister’s brother accused of fisheries fraud (nrk.no)

Kåre Ludvigsen, a veteran of the fishing industry and Fisheries Minister Svein Ludvigsen’s brother, has been reported to the police accused of fisheries fraud. This has been confirmed by the Troms Police District. The Fisheries Directorate in Troms reported Mr Ludvigsen to the police after he landed 47 tonnes of pollack, but reported the catch as just 30 tonnes. In an interview with NRK, Fisheries Minister Svein Ludvigsen said that any financial or environmental law-breaking in the fishing industry was unacceptable, regardless of who was behind it. The fisheries authorities and the legal system would deal with the case involving his brother in the normal way, said Svein Ludvigsen.

1. Worth Noting

• It looks as though more asylum seekers will arrive in Norway this year than ever before. If the trend so far this year continues, the number of those seeking asylum will exceed 18,000 before the end of the year. According to the Immigration Directorate (UDI) only around 20 per cent of them will be granted the right to stay in Norway.
  (NTB)
• The Office of the Auditor General has criticized government plans to improve mental healthcare provision. According to the Office of the Auditor General, improvement efforts have been hampered by muddled, incomplete and incorrect mental health plans. The report analyzes the plans of 19 county authorities, and reveals major errors and omissions.
  (Aftenposten)
• The pilots’ union at Braathens attempted to frighten pilots who had been made redundant by the company from taking jobs with Braathens’ new competitor, Norwegian. Three whole months before Norwegian starting flying this autumn, the Braathens pilots’ union sent a letter to pilots who had been made redundant by the company warning them not to take employment with Norwegian.
  (Dagsavisen)
• The Government is not expecting any dramatic increase in electricity prices this autumn and winter. During question time in the Storting yesterday, Petroleum and Energy Minister Einar Steensnæs (Chr.Dem) said that the situation in the Nordic power market indicated that there would be a slight rise in prices, but nothing close to the 30 per cent hike which had been reported in several newspapers.
  (NTB)
• An employee at the Palace stole a coin and planned to auction it off. Now the coin dealer is refusing to return the coin unless the theft is reported to the police – which the Palace has refused to do. The man who stole the coin was a highly trusted member of the Palace staff. He has now been given the sack.
  (tv2.no)
• The Fisheries Directorate has decided that Keiko, celebrity killer whale and star of the silver screen, will spend the winter at Taknesbukten in Halsa, on the Norwegian west coast. Lars Lillebø, the local authority spokesman on Keiko, is afraid there will be chaos when Keiko is moved. Almost 25,000 people have travelled to Halsa since Keiko’s arrival in the area six weeks ago.
  (Dagbladet)

2. Today’s comment from Dagsavisen

Norway is signalling its support for the USA in the row over a new Security Council resolution on Iraq. "There must be absolutely no doubt that a failure to comply will have extremely serious consequences for the country," said Foreign Minister Jan Petersen in the Storting yesterday. This is word for word the USA’s text in its latest draft UN resolution, which in reality gives the USA the go-ahead to attack – if the superpower feels that Iraq is not complying with all the demands for weapons inspections. In our opinion France’s proposal for a way forward is far better. It gives in a completely different way the UN Security Council control over any escalation of the conflict. Mr Petersen asserted without reservation yesterday that Iraq has access to chemical and biological weapons and an active nuclear arms programme. No hard evidence for this has yet been put forward. Independent experts have expressed well-founded doubts about American reports which state that extremely large amounts of such weapons exist. All the more reason to carry out inspections. But the demand for inspections must not be formulated in such a humiliating way that no independent country could accept it. If that happens it will only strengthen the suspicion that this is not really about finding and destroying weapons of mass destruction, but of something more long term – such as permanent control of increasingly important oil resources. Unfortunately, the Bush administration’s behaviour raises the question of whether it is also being driven by such vicarious motives. Norway must not support such a war.

3. Sport

Norway 2 – 0 Bosnia