Norway is a key energy partner for the EU and a major supplier of oil, gas and electricity. In the first 5 months of 2023, Norway was our largest gas supplier, providing 50% of the EU’s pipeline natural gas.
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. The cooperation was further strengthened during the Energy Dialogue in October 2022 co-chaired by Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy and Terje Aasland, Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy.
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 developing an even deeper long-term energy partnership.
EU-Norway Green Alliance
The EU and Norway signed the Green Alliance, the most comprehensive form of bilateral engagement established under the European Green Deal, on 24 April 2023 in Brussels. The agreement between the two parties will strengthen:
- joint climate action
- environmental protection efforts
- cooperation on the clean energy and industrial transition
The EU and Norway agreed to commit to climate neutrality and to align their domestic and international climate policies to pursue this goal as well as jointly promote ambitious climate action on the global stage. To help keep global temperature rise within the 1.5C limit, the agreement confirms that full respect for the precautionary principle is paramount in the Arctic region.
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 (EEA) and incorporates the EU legislation in the energy field, which creates a level-playing field for all economic activity taking place across the EEA.
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.
- 6th EU-Norway energy conference (24 October 2023)
- 5th EU-Norway energy conference (1 October 2021)
- 4th EU-Norway energy conference (5 February 2019)
- 3rd EU-Norway energy conference (5 February 2016)
- 2nd EU-Norway energy conference (25 September 2014)
Other important and energy-related EU and Norway high-level events include the Carbon capture, utilisation and storage forum (October 2022) and the Conference on carbon capture and storage (September 2019) that both took place in Oslo.
Related links
- News: Commissioner Simson hosts EU-Norway Energy Dialogue and 6th Energy Conference to deepen Green Alliance and support the clean energy transition (24/10/2023)
- Press release: New EU-Norway Green Alliance to deepen cooperation (24/04/2023)
- EU-Norway Energy Dialogue (27/10/2022)
- Joint EU-Norway statement on strengthening energy cooperation (23/06/2022)
- EU-Norway relations (European External Action Service)
- Delegation of the EU to Norway