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A dispute over EU energy policies has led to the collapse of Norway’s coalition government, just as US President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs and take over Greenland were set to reignite a debate on Oslo joining the bloc.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s push to implement three EU energy directives led to the abrupt departure of his party’s Eurosceptic partner, the pro-farmer Centre party, on Thursday. The collapse of the coalition leaves the premier’s Labour party to govern alone until elections later this year.
“We must not give away more power to the EU,” said Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, leader of the Centre party and Norway’s finance minister.
Both coalition parties in recent weeks vowed to oppose the renewal of Norway’s electricity interconnectors with Denmark, sparking concern across Europe over the perceived energy nationalism.
Norway, one of Europe’s richest countries thanks to its abundant oil and gas reserves as well as plentiful hydropower, is not part of the EU but adopts most of the bloc’s laws due to its membership in the European Economic Area. The three directives at issue concern renewable energy, energy efficiency and the energy performance of buildings.
Friction between Oslo and Brussels has risen in recent years, with many EU countries believing Norway needed to be more generous with its hydropower and not threaten to stop exporting power via interconnectors to Denmark, the UK and Germany.
“We are not happy with Norway. The sentiment is as bad as I have known it. Norway looks selfish, trying to keep this electricity for itself even as it makes so much money from selling gas to us,” said one EU ambassador in Oslo recently.
The situation is complicated by the return of Trump as US president. Some senior figures in Støre’s Labour party believe that Norway needs to strengthen its ties to the EU to avoid being isolated if the US places tariffs on Europe.
Støre said on Thursday his government had no plans to implement the other five parts of the EU’s clean energy package, which relate to the electricity market, keeping Oslo on a possible collision course with Brussels. The European Commission has given Norway until May to implement the package.
Others have been unnerved by Trump’s renewed push to acquire Greenland from Denmark, believing it could have consequences for the Norwegian Arctic island of Svalbard, where Russia has its own settlement.
Norway rejected EU membership in an EU referendum in 1994, leaving it only in the EEA, a position that some in Oslo have derided as having to take the rules of the bloc without having any say in them. Opinion polls suggest a majority of Norwegians are still against membership.
“It would take a real shock, maybe something from Trump, to restart the EU debate here,” said one senior Labour party figure on the 30th anniversary of the referendum in November last year.
Parliamentary elections in Norway are fixed in date, meaning it is likely the Labour party will try to continue as a single-party minority government until September 8. Some experts said that, paradoxically, this could make the government stronger as it could appeal to parties across the political spectrum to pass measures, including the EU directives.
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