BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS BROKEN OFF (Dagbladet)

Budget negotiations in the Storting broke down last night following an argument about the dividend tax. If the Labour Party does not succeed in getting a dividend tax included in the budget for next year, there will be no budget compromise. "We got passed all the non-negotiable demands on Monday night. Now the centre parties have come up with new non-negotiable demands. At the moment I am not sure we will manage to reach an agreement," said the Labour Party’s parliamentary leader Hill-Marta Solberg at midnight. The various parties’ parliamentary leaders are meeting again today to try and resolve the crisis.

HIGH-LEVEL PROTEST (Verdens Gang)

Just as the budget negotiations are reaching their final stage in the Storting, Norway’s most senior senior business executives have published a joint protest against the proposed tax increases and made three specific demands. Cut the electricity surcharge for industry, reduce the carbon tax and drop the business cycle tax. These demands amount to NOK 5.9 billion. Behind the protest are 34 of the country’s top industrialists. They represent the largest export industries in Norway – excluding the oil sector – with an annual turnover of NOK 320 billion.

DEPORT ASYLUM-SEEKERS CHARGED WITH CRIMINAL OFFENCES (Dagsavisen)

"If an asylum-seeker has been charged with several criminal offences and the police believe they have enough evidence for a conviction, the individual concerned should be deported before his or her application has been finally processed," says Labour Party representative to the Storting Astrid Marie Nistad. Members of the Justice Committee are concerned that a small minority of criminal asylum-seekers will give the whole community of asylum-seekers a bad name. Ms Nistad is calling for the Minister of Justice to think about introducing a change to the legislation.

MINISTER WANTS TO DETERMINE EXECUTIVE PAY (Aftenposten)

Trade and Industry Minister Grete Knudsen is planning to introduce pay guidelines for senior executives of state-controlled companies. It was Telenor chief executive Tormod Hermansen’s new salary of NOK 3 million that prompted her to react. "His salary is in excess of the moderation we are used to," she says. Ms Knudsen also points to the bonuses given to Statoil executives this year when she explains the need to do something about executive pay levels. Statoil’s chief executive Olav Fjell will be getting a NOK 440,000 Christmas bonus.

NOK 1 BILLION TO SEND PATIENTS ABROAD (Aftenposten)

A united opposition steam-rollered the Labour Party and allocated NOK 1 billion to buy patient care abroad. 280,000 patients are awaiting treatment at Norwegian hospitals. Some of them may now be getting out of the queue and into a hospital abroad. But even though the financing is in place it may take a while before travel-hungry patients can begin packing their suitcases. Norway has never had a scheme for purchasing hospital care for large patient categories abroad. First it must be determined which hospitals can take which patients, if the treatment meets Norwegian quality standards and if Norwegian patients’ rights also apply to Norwegians being treated at hospitals abroad.

PROGRESS PARTY BUDGET DOES NOT MAKE THE GRADE (Dagsavisen)

The Progress Party proposes using NOK 19 billion more of Norway’s oil revenues at the same time as interest rates will be cut. The party intends to reduce taxes by over NOK 40 billion next year. Government expenditure will be cut by NOK 214 billion. The Progress Party proposes spending NOK 10.45 billion of Norway’s oil revenues in a separate "foreign budget" to purchase goods and services like hospital equipment, helicopters, defence equipment and sheltered accommodation abroad. According to professor Øystein Noreng of the Norwegian School of Management, the party’s budget, if adopted, would create a great many more losers than winners. "It just doesn’t hang together," he says. Professor Noreng was contacted by the Progress Party itself in connection with its budget proposal.

NORTHERN MOTHERS CONTRIBUTE MOST (Nationen)

Women in Finnmark make a greater contribution to the family’s finances than in any other region in Norway. In Finnmark mothers’ income corresponds to almost 70 per cent of fathers’, compared to just 41 per cent in Rogaland. A far larger number of mothers are the family’s main breadwinner in Finnmark compared to the rest of the country. "Because many men in Finnmark have low-paid jobs in the primary sector, women must join the ordinary labour market," says former representative to the Storting and State Secretary for Finnmark Johanne Gaup.

WORTH NOTING

1. The Labour Party Conference’s compromise resolution on the EU means that Norway could become a member as quickly as the first of the 12 countries currently negotiating their application to join. This is confirmed by Haakon Blankenborg, leader of the Labour Party’s foreign policy committee in the Storting, and Gerhard Sabathil, the EU’s ambassador to Norway. (Dagbladet)
2. Criminal law professor Eivind Smith says that asylum-seekers cannot be deported in cases where the police have "enough evidence to convict". "It would be an invitation to the police to become judge and jury themselves. It is certainly not a confidence-inspiring move," says Mr Smith, who believes such a system would be a threat to the rule of law. (Dagsavisen)
3. Trains pass stop signals up to 70 times a year. Although most incidents do not pose a danger, a report from the National Rail Administration concludes that at least one such incident each year must be expected to result in a critical situation. (Aftenposten)
4. The Norwegian airline Braathens is in such deep financial difficulties that chief executive Arne A. Jensen is not taking for granted that the company will survive in its current form. (Dagbladet)
5. Orkla’s investigating committee told the board of directors on Friday that Aker RGI is in all probability the company’s largest shareholder. (Dagsavisen)
6. Several board members have confirmed that following the controversial loan to Norway Seafoods, which is controlled by Kjell Inge Røkke, Orkla’s board of directors is thinking of reducing chief executive Jens P. Heyerdahl’s authorization rights. (Dagbladet)

TODAY’S COMMENT FROM DAGENS NÆRINGSLIV

The Orkla scandal is full of surprises – not least of which is that Jens P. Heyerdahl is still the company’s chief executive. It is difficult to understand that a chief executive can survive when he refuses to tell the board about his participation in transactions involving the company’s shares. When the signs are that he has also used the company’s money to finance the new owner’s purchase of company shares, the whole thing becomes incredible. The story is even more remarkable in that two Orkla chairmen have been forced to resign. They did not succeed in getting the chief executive to spill the beans. It looks as though Mr Heyerdahl has completely misunderstood the relationship between the owners and the management, and between the board and the chief executive. It is, in fact, the owners of a company who have the final say. The chief executive’s job is to manage the owners’ property in the way the owners want. It therefore goes without saying that Heyerdahl should answer when the company’s owners ask what he has been doing with their money. But it is also the owners absolute right to keep a chief executive that keeps secrets from them. Whether or not it is a particularly good idea is another matter. Silence, too, speaks volumes.

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