Norway is a key energy partner for the EU and major supplier of oil, gas and electricity. Norway is a member of the European Economic Area Agreement and has therefore adopted EU energy market rules in its legislation.
In June 2022, the EU and Norway highlighted their strong relationship as neighbours, partners and allies in a joint statement. It acknowledges the urgency to act in order to increase energy independence and improve Europe's resilience to the negative consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Both sides agreed to step up the existing energy cooperation to ensure additional short-term and long-term gas supplies from Norway, to address the issue of high energy prices, and to develop long-term cooperation on offshore renewable energy, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and energy research and development with a view to develope an even deeper long-term energy partnership.
Energy dialogue
The European Commissioner responsible for energy and the Norwegian Minister for Petroleum and Energy meet regularly for the EC-Norway energy dialogue.
The energy dialogue was launched in 2002 and aims to foster cooperation with Norway on a broad range of energy issues, such as international energy, global energy supply and demand, policy developments in Norway and in the EU, implementation of EU energy rules in Norway, cooperation on technology and carbon capture and storage.
Norway is a member of the European Economic Area and incorporates the EU legislation in the energy field, which creates a level-playing field for all economic activity taking place across the European Economic Area.
EU-Norway energy conference
The EU-Norway energy conference takes place regularly, usually back-to-back with the EU-Norway Energy Dialogue meetings, to discuss a broad range of energy cooperation topics.