Tag: Norway

Norway is to double the carbon tax on its North Sea oil industry and set up a £1bn (€1.23bn) fund to help combat the damaging impacts of climate change in the developing world.

Norway's government ordered on Monday (9 July) a last-minute settlement in a dispute between striking oil workers and employers, averting the shutdown of Western Europe's top oil producer.

Tapping the €430-billion Norway pension fund, made up of revenues from the country's gas and oil exports, to boost EU bailout mechanisms is a "non issue" because the fund has a different purpose, Norway's Ambassador to the EU Atle Leikvoll told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

The Arctic is becoming a new geopolitical centre, and the EU and the rest of the world need to update their "mental maps", Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said.

A court in Norway will decide today (25 July) if the first proceedings against Anders Behring Breivik, the mass murdered who threw Norway in shock on Friday, should be open to the public. Meanwhile a 'manifesto' published online by Breivik suggests that he wants to inspire followers to wage a "crusade" against Muslims and "cultural Marxists".

One year after the establishment of Europe's first 'macro-region', which brings together 10 countries nested around the Baltic Sea, a number of positive results can already be seen, according to Johannes Hahn, the European commissioner in charge of regional policy.

Europe's Nordic states yesterday (26 February) debated in Iceland whether to keep their own currencies or seek shelter from the global crisis in the euro zone.

Norway is unlikely to join the EU in the near future, but will seek increased cooperation on energy and climate goals and closer alignment of its currency with the euro in the years to come, Norwegian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Elisabeth Walaas told EurActiv.cz in an interview.

A meeting with Commissioner Andris Piebalgs was called off by Norway's energy minister on 30 August, officially because of important national budgetary discussions.

"The scenario of Norwegian [EU] membership is not going to happen over the next four years," declared the country's new foreign minister.

A majority of the peoples of Sweden, Norway and Denmark would prefer a Nordic Union to the EU, reveals new poll.

Popular support for EU membership is increasing steadily in Norway, a recent public opinion poll published by the Norway Post has revealed.

Between now and early April at the latest, the EU and the three other members of the European Economic Area (EEA) must come to terms over trade issues that result from the Union's scheduled 2004 enlargement.

The Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) warns against the marginalisation of Norway in Europe in a new book, "Navigating by the Stars", released at a conference on EU-Norway relations in Brussels. The book states that Norway's perception of marginalisation arises from the declining market share of the European Economic Area in the widening EU, alongside with the acceleration of the European integration process.

Norway's 4 million registered voters will head to polling stations on Monday (10 September) to vote for their parliamentary representatives. The conservatives threaten to oust the governing social democrats, whose popularity has dwindled in the past few months.