Right turn for Labour Party (Dagsavisen)

The Labour Party could have won acceptance for its proposal on state ownership in the oil sector if it had sought the support of the Centre Party and Socialist Left Party. However, for strategic reasons Labour chose instead to reach a compromise deal with the Conservatives, Liberals and Christian Democrats. As a result, Statoil’s shares will be floated on the stock exchange this summer or, failing that, some time before the end of the year. At the same time the Government will sell off 21.5 per cent of its direct financial interest in Norway’s oil reserves.

Norsk Hydro lost lobbying campaign (Aftenposten)

It became clear yesterday that Norsk Hydro had lost the intense lobbying campaign which had been conducted in the Storting, when it was announced that the Conservatives, Liberals, Christian Democrats and the Labour Party had come to a compromise agreement on Norway’s national oil policy. Together with a number of foreign oil companies, Norsk Hydro will be given the opportunity to buy just 6.5 per cent of the State’s Direct Financial Interest (SDFI), while Statoil will be able to buy 15 per cent. "This means that Statoil pulls ahead of us in size in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. We do not think this is a positive move. We have argued that the Norwegian sector needs two competitors of equal size and strength," says Norsk Hydro’s senior vice president corporate communications Tor Steinum.

Thorn in LO’s side (Aftenposten)

The conflict between Kværner and Kjell Inge Røkke’s company Aker Maritime, which owns 17.8 per cent of Kværner’s shares, has been a thorn in the side of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions for some time. Both Kværner and Aker Maritime, 63 per cent of whose shares are owned by Kjell Inge Røkke, are fighting hard to win support for their strategies. "We have to protect the interests of our members in both companies. It is therefore impossible for us to support a merger as long as the employees in one of the companies are so fiercely opposed to it," says LO vice president Jan Balstad.

Forced to oppose Røkke’s plan (Dagens Næringsliv)

For the first time a member union has publicly demanded that LO president Yngve Hågensen take sides in the conflict between Aker Maritime and Kværner. The Norwegian Union of Commercial and Office Employees has demanded that the LO leadership use all available means, including its political influence, to stop Kjell Inge Røkke’s plans.

Help for the poor (Dagbladet)

The Government plans to initiate a major effort to help the poor in Norway. In its long-term programme to be published today, the Government will announce measures to assist the country’s 6,000 homeless, as well as an increase in housing subsidies for low-income families. Among the other measures to be announced is a new financial aid scheme for students and other young people who become seriously ill.

Parties support increased cash-back for cars sent to scrap-yard (Dagsavisen)

The average age of Norwegian cars is rising again. Both the Labour Party and the Conservatives support the idea of getting a larger number of unsafe and polluting vehicles off the roads by increasing the amount paid for cars that are sent to the scrap-yard. When the cash-back amount was increased from NOK 1,000 to NOK 6,000 in 1996 the average age of the private vehicles on our roads fell from 10.4 years to 9.9 years. Now the average age has once again crept up to over ten years. There are still over 740,000 cars driving around in Norway which are not fitted with a catalytic converter.

Time is almost right for a president (Dagsavisen)

The monarchy has no future in Norway, according to Georg Apenes, head of the Data Inspectorate. He says the next president of the Storting should pave the way for a change to a republican system of government. "The necessary mechanisms should be in place when Harald or Haakon decide the time is right to say: ‘I think I will go the whole hog and become a private citizen’," says Mr Apenes, who also thinks that the disestablishment of the Church of Norway should be carefully considered by the country’s leading politicians.

Government should lose right to appoint bishops (Vårt Land)

In its final report the Values Commission has proposed that the Government should lose the right to appoint bishops and deans. The commission also wants an end to the requirement that 50 per cent of government ministers must be Evangelical Lutherans. However, the commission has not made any recommendations regarding the position of the Church of Norway as the established church in Norway.

Worth Noting

• The Government will today extend Norway’s ban on imports of meat and dairy products from EU countries. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg made this clear yesterday. (Dagsavisen)
• Opposition to EU membership has jumped according to a recent opinion poll carried out by Din Mening/Norsk Statistikk on behalf of Nationen. From February to March opposition to EU membership rose by 4.2 per cent to 56.2 percent. (Nationen)
• The prospect of 2,500 job losses and a savage restructuring process that nobody wants are among the reasons given by Kværner’s employees for their categorical rejection of a merger between Kværner and Aker Maritime. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• For the royal family to retain its position as a moral role model in Norway, its members would have to keep much more within the established conventions than they do today. When the royal family becomes like us, the whole point of the monarchy withers away in the eyes of the people, says sociologist Pål Veiden. (Dagbladet)
• Helge Ingstad, scientist, author and adventurer has died aged 101. (NTB)
• As so often before in a World Cup qualifier, the Norwegian team was content to win the battle for scoring chances. The opposition took care of the goals. After yesterday’s 2-1 defeat at the hands of Belarus, with the winning goal being scored in extra time, the Norwegian football team must acknowledge that all hope of a place in the World Cup finals has faded away. (Aftenposten)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is wise not to follow up the final report from the Values Commission with a Government-backed report to the Storting which invites MPs to vote on recommendations as wide-ranging as petroleum fund investment in the third world to free after-school play schemes. He prefers to let the commission’s ideas be a source of inspiration both for government ministries and for the rest of us. Used sensibly the Values Commission’s work could in this way contribute to a lasting process of ethical consciousness-raising which is more meaningful than the ad-hoc pronouncements from officious commission members along the way. We all benefit from being reminded that the values freedom, tolerance, respect and equality become real only when we are capable of mobilizing our responsibility to defend them. Nevertheless, we are not particularly tempted to repeat this experiment in appointing a government commission to manage how we should be debating the moral issues confronting us. The commission confusingly, but predictably, got trapped in the grey area between being free to pronounce on issues for which it did not have to hold itself accountable and being a government-sponsored think tank.