LO branded an enemy of Israel
(Aftenposten)
A delegation from the Norwegian
Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) was yesterday refused entry into
Israel. The reason given was that they belonged to a hostile
organization. The LO representatives were forced to wait for four
hours at Ben Gurion Airport before they were allowed through the
security area. "We consider this to have been a hostile act," said
deputy leader Finn Erik Thoresen. The LO has been openly critical
of Israel, not least in connection with the country’s military
offensive on the West Bank, and Mr Thoresen believes this is the
reason for the blacklisting.
Norway donated millions to Peres Centre
after peace prize award (Dagsavisen/Saturday)
A fortnight after Mona Juul and her
husband Terje Rød-Larsen had received their peace prizes, the Peres
Centre was promised almost NOK 4 million by the Norwegian Foreign
Ministry. The donation, NOK 3,750,000, is by far the largest single
amount which the Norwegian authorities have ever granted to the
Peres Centre. The money was promised despite an internal Foreign
Ministry memo which warned about the uncritical nature of the
grants made to the Centre, and despite the fact that the Foreign
Ministry had not received an auditor’s report or any other
satisfactory reports about what the Norwegian money was being spent
on.
Lønning believes Mona Juul will get the
sack (Dagbladet/Saturday)
Mona Juul’s tenure as Norway’s
Ambassador to Israel could soon be over, according to Inge Lønning,
the Conservative Party’s foreign policy spokesman. Mr Lønning has
also confirmed that he has discussed Ms Juul’s role with Foreign
Minister Jan Petersen. "As I see it, in the long term we would not
be best served to have an ambassador who is so controversial," said
Mr Lønning.
Mona Juul summoned home to explain
herself (Verdens Gang/Sunday)
The Foreign Ministry has decided it
wants Norway’s Ambassador to Israel, Mona Juul, to return to Oslo
to answer a growing list of questions regarding the peace prize
worth NOK 450,000 which she received from the Peres Centre. "The
need to have a serious chat with her has grown over the past few
days," confirmed a Foreign Ministry source. Behind the move is,
among other things, VG’s revelations that Mona Juul was central in
handling a series of requests for money from the Peres Centre in
1997 and 1998, before she and her husband Terje Rød-Larsen received
a prize from the Centre in January 1999.
Labour State Secretary blocked cash to
Peres Centre (Verdens Gang/Saturday)
Jan Egeland, former State Secretary
at the Foreign Ministry and politically responsible for the
so-called Oslo channel, through which Israeli and Palestinian
negotiators arrived at the Oslo Accord, was for a long time
extremely sceptical about giving Norwegian money to the Peres
Centre. Mr Egeland says that he himself could not have accepted a
peace prize from the Centre as long as he was working for the
Foreign Ministry. Today he is President of the Norwegian Red Cross.
In 1997 he approved a USD 100,000 grant to the Shimon Peres Peace
Centre. He also indicated that more money, USD 150,000, could be
forthcoming the year after, if the project was successful. "We gave
them USD 100,000 when they finally presented a proper,
well-documented application, and at the same time fulfilled our
requirements regarding the way they were organized. In the earliest
phase their organization was far too loose. Their programmes were
unclear and they did not send in proper applications. To be quite
honest they did not send in applications at all at the start. The
Centre’s leadership was made up of top diplomats who were not used
to aid projects, even if they were impressive in the peace
process," said Mr Egeland.
Norway bought Russian uranium
(Dagsavisen/Saturday)
The Institute for Energy Technology
(IFE) has for the first time admitted where it has been buying its
radioactive uranium from. It comes from Russia. But the people
responsible for Norway’s two nuclear reactors do not know exactly
where in Russia the uranium is brought from. "Dealing with the
Russian nuclear industry in this way is extremely worrying," said
Frederic Hauge, head of the environmental foundation, Bellona. The
uranium comes from a mine in Siberia which, according to Bellona,
is responsible for substantial radioactive pollution. Atle Valseth,
head of security at the IFE, has confirmed that they do not have an
overview of where in Russia the uranium comes from. But he says the
issue is completely irrelevant. "We imported 500 kg uranium from
Russia in 1999. I do not see any problems in that," said Mr
Valseth.
Hope for Statkraft (Dagens
Næringsliv/Saturday)
Statkraft, the state-owned
electricity utility, may avoid having to pay out more in dividends
that the Government intends. The Labour Party and the Progress
Party are not prepared to accept without question the Government’s
proposal to squeeze another billion kroner in dividends out of the
company. During last autumn’s national budget negotiations for
2002, the Storting decided that the state-owned utility should pay
almost NOK 2.7 billion in dividends. In the Government’s proposed
revised national budget, it now wants Statkraft to pay out another
NOK 950 million in dividends.
Secret ownership to be permitted
(Klassekampen/Saturday)
A parliamentary majority is flying
in the face of warnings from the National Authority for
Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime,
the Banking, Insurance and Securities Commission, the Norwegian
Confederation of Trade Unions Norwegian Confederation of Trade
Unions (LO) and the Press Association and has decided to allow less
openness concerning ownership in the Norwegian financial markets.
Together with the Progress Party, the governing coalition has
rejected the public’s right of access to the Registers of
Securities. This will lead to a more closed financial market where
investors can hide behind account numbers in any bank and the
public and press will have less access to information regarding the
market.
Worth Noting
- Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit were
severely sunburned during an interview with a German television
station on Wednesday. A decision will be made today as to whether
the Crown Princess will be able to go ahead with the couple’s
planned official visit to Germany. (Aftenposten/Sunday)
- Crown Princess Mette-Marit was so severely sunburned that she
risks not being able to greet the children’s parade from the Palace
balcony on 17 May, Norway’s national day. The Crown Princess
yesterday withdrew from the planned official visit to Germany due
to her injuries. (Dagsavisen)
- For the first time since the second world war Norwegian pilots
will engage in military action in wartime. In all probability
Norwegian F-16 fighter planes will be deployed in Afghanistan this
autumn. The objective is to participate in the battle against the
remnants of the al-Qaida and Taliban forces. Two, four or six
Norwegian fighters could see action. (Dagbladet/Saturday)
- In the course of three years Storebrand has lost NOK 1.3
billion in its attempts to create a banking corporation.
Finansbanken and Storebrand Bank have proved to be hugely costly
for the insurance group. (Dagens Næringsliv)
- The Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine (NVH) and the
Agricultural University of Norway (NLH) have received a record
number of applications ahead of this autumn’s uptake. The NVH has
received 65 per cent more applications than last year, while
several courses at the NLH have seen the number of applications
rise by over 50 per cent. (Nationen/Saturday)
- The number of people attending church services has dropped by
over 400,000 in the past four years. This represents a fall of 5.7
per cent. (Vårt Land/Saturday)
- Drug abuse is as common as alcohol abuse among Norwegian
drivers. In the course of the past ten years the number of people
caught driving under the influence of substances other than alcohol
has more than doubled. (Aftenposten/Saturday)a
Today’s comment from Aftenposten
The Conservative Party’s Inge
Lønning is not only Vice President of the Storting, he is also
deputy chairman of the Storting’s Foreign Affairs Committee. This
is a key position when the Foreign Minister is Conservative Party
chairman Jan Petersen. It therefore comes as something of a
surprise that Mr Lønning should engage in personnel policy
predictions and announce his belief that Mona Juul’s tenure as
Norway’s Ambassador to Israel will soon be over. If we assume that
Foreign Minister Petersen and his foreign policy spokesman in the
Storting do actually talk to each other, it is difficult to see how
this could be closer to the public dismissal of an ambassador. We
have previously described Mr Petersen’s handling of the Juul affair
as punctilious. But if Jan Petersen has now decided to use Inge
Lønning as a vehicle through which to reveal his true feelings on
the matter, it is an unforgivably bad piece of personnel management
which the Foreign Minister is in the process of institutionalizing.
Is it too much to ask that Mr Petersen should tell us how we are
supposed to interpret Mr Lønning’s pronouncements?
