Noorwegen verborg EU-eisen voor wijziging oliewet (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Norwegian government has provoked the ire of the country's northern regions for deliberately concealing from parliament demands from Brussels that it radically alter its petroleum law to allow oil operations to be managed from outside Norway.
Frightened of sparking negative press coverage and a difficult policy debate, the current energy minister and her predecessor have for two years hidden requests from the European Union that it adjust the law.
Changes to the oil law due to be considered by the Energy and Environment Committee on Tuesday (31 May), would see a removal of the current requirement that oil operations in Norwegian territory be managed from or be based in Norway.
While not a member of the EU, Norway is part of the European Economic Area (EEA), which allows the country to access the bloc's single market without full accession and as such is obliged to not discriminate in favour of domestic firms.
The topic is very sensitive as the domestic-operation requirement in the oil law in effect works to boost economic development in the high north, however.
Nevertheless, the Brussels-based European Free Trade Surveillance Authority (ESA) - which acts to supervise the single market and legislation in the EEA in the same way that the European Commission does in the EU - found that this aspect of the oil law discriminated on the basis of nationality and so had to be changed.
Revelations in Norwegian daily Aftenposten about the affair have set off a firestorm of criticism in the region of North Norway. The paper managed to access a letter from the government to the national ombudsman warning against the release of a two-year-old complaint from the ESA over the oil law.
"Access to the letter in question from the ESA could lead to press coverage of the case or mention of it by others and it was politically important for the government to prevent this," the letter reads.
"This is particularly important for the sake of party groups in parliament, which could easily be get a false impression of the case if it was wrongly or indiscriminately spoken about publicly before the matter was agreed between the Ministry and the ESA on a solution," continues the correspondence.
The three counties of Nordland, Troms and Finnmark that make up the region of North Norway have since written to the Energy and Environment Committee to complain that the changes to the law should have been submitted for public consultation, as is normal legislative practice instead of being quietly sent to the committee to sneak through.
Amendments to the changes are to be considered by the full sitting of the parliament on 9 June.