STOLTENBERG PROMISES MORE MONEY (Dagsavisen)

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg announced to the Labour Party national committee that the Government will spend more on health and education in next year’s budget. The controversy over national hospital administration and the future of the counties continued behind closed doors. "We cannot let accusations of conservatism stop Labour’s modernization," said party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland in his opening statement.

GOVERNMENT TO PROPOSE TAX ON DIVIDENDS (NTB)

The Government will include a tax on dividends in its budget draft, according to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) newsroom. The Government is scheduled to present its draft budget on 4 October. The budget has not yet received its final form, but this tax measure will be designed to exempt ordinary citizens who have placed some of their savings in unit trusts (mutual funds). The background for this budget measure is that dividend incomes were a major contributor to the increase in social disparity in the 1990s.

GJEDREM COUNSELS MODERATE PACE OF DEREGULATION (Dagens Næringsliv)

Central bank governor Svein Gjedrem cautions against stepping up the pace of deregulation in vulnerable industries. Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen, on the other hand, feels it would not hurt the country to sacrifice a few enterprises if doing so will lead to higher incomes, lower taxes, lower interest rates and better health care."That would make us more vulnerable when oil prices go down," says Mr. Gjedrum, recalling the events of the 1980s, when policies designed to stimulate the economy backfired and the price of oil plummeted, with high unemployment as one of the outcomes.

HEAVY PRESSURE ON ECONOMY (Dagens Næringsliv)

"There is nothing wrong with spending more of our oil revenues, but just not now," says Ådne Cappelen, research director at Statistics Norway. Recent figures show a growing labour shortage, with 19,100 job vacancies at the end of August – a ten per cent increase over the same date last year. Mr. Cappelen believes the shortage of labour is the most important argument against diverting more oil revenues into public spending, as Carl I. Hagen (Progress) and others call for.

EU SUPPORTERS LOSING GROUND AGAIN (Nationen)

The scales have tipped back against EU membership. In a poll taken by Din Mening/Norsk Statistikk, 46 replied that they would vote against membership and 44 per cent that they would vote for Norwegian membership of the EU. The poll also indicates that Eurosceptics are leaving the Labour Party, which could provide the explanation for the downturn in Labour’s popularity. Labour is becoming as unreservedly pro-membership as the Conservatives. The European Movement in Norway is highly critical of Jan Petersen’s and Thorbjørn Jagland’s inclination to put off a new EU round until EU advocates have achieved a clear and stable majority.

NHO TO CONFRONT GREEDY BUSINESS LEADERS (Vårt Land)

The Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) condemns the hefty raises, bloated options and inflated golden parachutes that year after year make moderate labour settlements impossible. It is reported that the leaders of the organization are strongly in favour of central guidelines, and a meeting of the NHO’s executive committee is scheduled for next week to discuss the problem. The executive committee consists of 83 representatives elected by member companies and is responsible for establishing guidelines for the administration and the working committees.

SICK PAY CUTS WILL AFFECT WOMEN MOST (Klassekampen)

One effect of the Sandman Commission’s proposal to reduce sick pay to 80 per cent would be that a person with NOK 1 million in annual income and three days of sick leave would take home an additional NOK 4,000. On the other hand, a vocational nurse earning NOK 132,000 a year, with 20 days of sick leave, would lose NOK 1,900 in take-home pay. Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) secretary Rita Lekang criticizes the commission for giving insufficient consideration to the situations typically faced by women. The LO will defend the current sick pay scheme against the Sandman Commission’s recommendation.

WORTH NOTING

• Director General of Health Anne Alvik resigned yesterday in response to the weight of criticism against her handling of the assisted suicide case in Bærum. She regrets nothing, however. (Aftenposten)
• John Alvheim (Progress), chairman of the Parliamentary Social Affairs Committee, will take another look at the Norwegian Medicinal Depot’s treatment of pharmacies which buy drugs from other wholesalers. Until 1994, the NMD had a monopoly on the wholesale pharmaceuticals trade in Norway and now takes punitive measures against pharmacies that buy from other suppliers. (Aftenposten)
• There seems to be no end in sight for the troubles besetting Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and the Labour Party. A survey taken by Gallup for Verdens Gang and TV2 reports that in the course of the summer, 230,000 voters revised their view that Mr. Stoltenberg is doing a good job. (Verdens Gang)
• Norway is pulling out all the stops, sending the King, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to New York to lobby for Norway’s candidacy for a seat on the UN Security Council. (Nationen)
• Telenor is buying Tele Danmark’s share of Swedish Telenordia jointly with British Telecom. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Petitions for asylum in the second quarter jumped 82.5 per cent from the first quarter this year. According to statistics from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, no other country in Europe has seen a growth rate of this magnitude. "This increase consists largely of applications from Kosovars who were evacuated to Norway last year," says chief information officer Frode Forfang of the Immigration Directorate. (VD Nett)
• Fluctuating donor generosity and frequent changes in government regulations force not-profit organizations to explore new avenues in fund raising. Unit trusts are now being offered to allow people to save money while supporting development efforts in developing countries. (Dagsavisen)

TODAY’S COMMENT from Aftenposten

Labour Party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland, in presenting the executive committee’s party programme recommendations yesterday, limited himself mostly to formulations upon which agreement has yet to be reached. He was able to do this, secure in the knowledge that the national committee would not be discussing the recommendations; he was only telling them what will be placed before the national convention. Mr. Jagland’s enthusiasm for the proposals to transfer the hospitals to national administration and to open Statoil up for private investment clearly indicate that he is not expecting defeat at the national convention. The draft programme leaves no doubt that the party leadership and the Labour Government entertain high hopes regarding the public sector reforms aiming to streamline the public administration. Their message is that government administration must be reorganized: what we need is not more government administration but more effective government administration. Their ambition of reorganizing the welfare state is not likely to gain them votes, but a welfare state providing better services and operating more smoothly certainly would. But this utopia is a long way off. Will the Labour Party be able to cover the distance quickly enough?

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