UN role could be weakened (Vårt Land)

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik are worried that the UN’s peacekeeping role could be weakened as a result of the Iraq crisis. At the end of last week the two discussed Iraq at length. "Mr Annan expressed the same ethical and political approach that I have to this issue. We share the same stance, the main plank of which is to exhaust all other possibilities before seeking a military solution to the conflict," said Mr Bondevik.

Norwegian contribution to Iraq peacekeeping force possible (Nationen)

Norwegian ‘peacekeeping’ forces could be sent to Iraq after the USA has won the war, according to Major General Gullow Gjeseth. Labour’s Marit Nybakk, who chairs the Storting’s Defence Committee, says the question of Norwegian participation in a future peacekeeping operation is an interesting issue. Speaking in general terms, she said that Norway has done a good job in sending military forces to countries in conflict.

Highest number of girl offenders in Norway (Dagsavisen/Sunday)

Norwegian girls are among the least law-abiding, and more than a quarter of the country’s criminals are young women. This puts us at the top of the OECD’s list when it comes to young female offenders. The figures include young people up to the age of 19, who have been suspected , charged or remanded in custody in connection with alleged criminal offences. "I would assume that shoplifting has an impact on these figures. And even though we know that girls do not necessarily shoplift more than boys, the gender gap for this kind of offence is not that large," said Ragnhild Bjørnebekk, an expert on violent crime at the Norwegian Police Academy.

New top security prison (Aftenposten)

Norway is to build its first prison with a separate, high-security wing, in which the country’s most dangerous criminals will be housed. The plans for the new Halden Prison are now more or less complete. Behind the outer perimeter walls there will, in fact, be two prisons: one for ordinary prisoners, and one for high-risk prisoners serving lengthy jail sentences. The Ministry of Justice is to consider whether foreign war criminals should be sent here. The Norwegian authorities have committed themselves to accepting individuals convicted by the UN court in the Hague.

Lawyers refuse to relocate (Dagsavisen)

95 per cent of the lawyers employed by the seven central government bodies due to be relocated out of Oslo, have said they will resign rather than move from the capital. Family obligations and future career prospects are among the reasons given. Lawyers are one of the major professional groups which will be affected when Labour and Government Administration Minister Victor D. Norman (Con) carries out his plan to relocate the seven authorities to other towns up and down the country.

Minister still hopeful of retaining differentiated employers’ contributions (Aftenposten)

Local Government and Regional Affairs Minister Erna Solberg is not yet ready to abandon Norway’s system of differentiated employers’ national insurance contributions. "We still believe we can retain differentiation, but we are also working to develop alternative solutions. The system we have today was approved in 1999 and is valid until 2004," said Ms Solberg. Employers’ national insurance contributions vary from zero for employers in Finnmark to 14 per cent for employers in Oslo. This scheme is considered one of the most important elements in the country’s regional policy.

Norway a haven for financial crime (Aftenposten/Saturday)

Organized financial crime is easy as pie in Norway, according to tax auditors Hans Petter Tetmo from the Directorate of Taxes and Øivind Eriksen from the Norwegian Tax Auditors Association. They claim that the tax authorities have focused to closely on the small, personal deductibles worth NOK 2,000 or NOK 5,000. Instead, we must start catching the people there is obviously something wrong with – the people who deliberately break the law. According to Tetmo and Eriksen, the only way to make progress is to develop our expertise in this area and channel our resources to combat gross financial crime.

Norway risks becoming an industry-free zone (Dagens Næringsliv/Saturday)

Helge Lund, chief executive of Aker Kværner, is afraid that inadequate framework conditions for businesses in Norway could leave the country an industry-free zone. He blames interest rates, the exchange rate, generous wage settlements and high levels of absenteeism. "If we do not make substantial and rapid changes in the framework conditions under which industry operates, we will career head-long down the path towards industrial disintegration," he said.

Statoil gears up for gas age (Aftenposten)

Norway’s oil age will soon be over – in a few years’ time we will be a gas-producing nation. Just over 10 years from now, sales of gas to Europe will bring in more revenue than oil production. Gas production currently accounts for a quarter of Statoil’s activities on the Norwegian continental shelf. For the Norwegian continental shelf as a whole, the volume of gas produced will probably outstrip oil production in the course of 2012, though it will not be until 2015 that revenues from gas sales will be higher than those from oil.

Civil servants secure and satisfied (Dagsavisen/Saturday)

Behind their mountains of official forms and red tape, civil servants are just as motivated and happy to go to work as their private sector counterparts, according to a recent survey. The media help to over-dramatize how bad it is to work in the public sector both at central and local government level. But when it comes to the crunch, it seems that public servants are satisfied with their lot.

1. Worth Noting

• The Iraq conflict has put Europe and the USA on a collision course. "This is building up to a crisis, the like of which Nato has never seen," said Espen Barth Eide, of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).
  (Dagsavisen)
• Defence Minister Kristin Krohn Devold is appalled that three Nato countries have opposed moves to defend Turkey. "This is the most fundamental rule in Nato, on which we too base our security," she said. If Nato agrees, Norway is ready to send crews to man AWACS aerial reconnaissance aircraft.
  (Aftenposten)
• Labour leader Jens Stoltenberg was welcomed with a peace anthem by members of the party’s youth wing, AUF. But Mr Stoltenberg refused to promise that the Labour Party would take a harder line against a war in Iraq.
  (Dagsavisen/Saturday)
• State-owned Avinor – previously the Civil Aviation Authority – has bought private health insurance for its employees, so that they can avoid national health waiting lists for hospital treatment. It costs Avinor NOK 4 million to insure its 2,500 employees.
  (Aftenposten/Saturday)
• Norway’s schools are among the poorest in Europe when it comes to teaching maths and science. We also lag behind on foreign languages, but are good at integration.
  (Verdens Gang/Saturday)
• Trade and Industry Minister Ansgar Gabrielsen feels it is suspicious that the Spanish yard Dragados beat Aker Kværner in the battle for Statoil’s Snow White Contract. He wants the EU to investigate.
  (Dagens Næringsliv/Saturday)
• The Ministry of Health is now considering applications for approval from nine private hospitals which want to treat patients on national health service waiting lists.
  (Dagsavisen/Saturday)
• Two remand prisoners were yesterday freed by the Oslo District Court because they had been kept for too long in police isolation cells. There are no remand cells available for them, so the police can no longer keep them in custody – even though the court believes there is a considerable danger that they will commit new crimes for profit.
  (Aftenposten/Saturday)
• Ten years after the appointment of Norway’s first woman bishop, Laila Riksaasen Dahl has become the second. She has just been ordained Bishop of Tunsberg.
  (Aftenposten)

2. Today’s comment from Aftenposten

To a large extent we agree with Local Government and Regional Affairs Minister Erna Solberg when she says that Norway’s regional policies have passed their sell-by date. For years enormous sums of money have been allocated to regional policy measures that have been unable to halt the increasing depopulation of large areas. A major reason for this failure has been the absence of any long-term objective for regional policy for many years. We hope that the Regional Commission that the Government appointed at the end of last week will succeed in drawing up guidelines for political measures which give results. Completely new measures are needed, as is a new approach to the problems experienced by both country districts and urban areas. The developments we have seen must also have an impact on regional policy. We must accept a new regulatory framework. This applies primarily to the agricultural sector and to population patterns. A realistic policy, offering consistency to those affected, must be created. We need to look at regional policy with a fresh pair of eyes.