Tensions mount in Oslo as long-simmering conflict over EU energy rules comes to the fore.
Norway’s government risks crisis over a contentious package of EU energy bills.
The center-left Agrarian Party has previously threatened to quit the administration in Oslo if the EU’s Clean Energy for All Europeans Package is transposed into Norwegian law. The party says the package will undermine domestic control of natural resources.
A dramatic exit by the Agrarians could topple the coalition government, which is currently led by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre from the center-left Labor Party.
The Labor-led Ministry of Petroleum and Energy is working on how to implement the new package, according to Norwegian media reports, which is set to come to a crunch when it reaches the point of final decision by the government. As the tension mounts, a key court decision due Tuesday is expected to clarify whether it was unconstitutional for Norway to adopt previous EU energy laws.
Opponents of the energy package fear it will make permanent a perceived loss of energy sovereignty, which started with the third energy market package adopted by Norway in 2018, leading to higher energy prices and less control of power markets by Norwegian regulators.
The leader of the Agrarian Party and Norwegian finance minister, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, has made it clear his party will move to stop any attempt to implement the package.
“It is not on the government’s table now and if it appears, the Agrarians won’t let it pass. We will not give up more power in this area,” Vedum vowed to newspaper Dagbladet earlier this year.
Vedum’s party has endured a slide in the polls since entering the government with 13 percent of the vote in 2021’s national elections — winning only 8 percent in local elections earlier this year.
While Norway is not a member of the bloc and has a long-standing streak of EU-skepticism, it still implements every piece of Brussels legislation sent its way through the European Economic Area agreement, having only refused once, and even then relenting after a change of government. The agreement makes Norway a part of the bloc’s internal market, while not being a formal EU member or having representation in its institutions.
The Agrarian Party has campaigned partly on resistance to EU energy policies that it views as eroding Norway’s sovereignty over its plentiful natural resources.
If the Agrarians go through with their threat to quit the government, their partner, the Labor Party, would face forming a government on its own — or letting the center-right Conservatives take charge once again. Having picked up only 48 of the total 169 parliamentary seats in 2021, Labor will find it difficult to govern alone.
“There is no doubt that this is a sensitive topic for all of us. We have to evaluate the case with that in mind and try to find a solution that strengthens us in the end,” Terje Aasland, Labor’s minister of petroleum and energy, told Norwegian NTB newswire service last week.
In 2022, as energy prices soared far above what inhabitants were used to, despite the country’s natural resources and longtime energy surplus, many Norwegians blamed energy cooperation with the EU.
Last week, one of Norway’s top labor unions voted for the country to leave the EU energy union and end oversight by the EU’s energy regulation agency, ACER.
The agency has been a particularly divisive topic in Norway. The Supreme Court’s incoming Tuesday ruling concerns the legality of ACER’s oversight role in the country.
Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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