Norway’s Government Faces Crunch Week in Row Over EU Rules
(Bloomberg) -- Norway’s ruling coalition is teetering on the brink with seven months to go until the next general election in western Europe’s largest energy exporter.
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A disagreement over adopting the European Union’s energy market rules has pitted the Labor of Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store against its junior partner, the euro-skeptic Center Party, in a row that has threatened to split the two-party minority cabinet.
After talks within each party during the weekend, Center’s leader, Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum on Monday sought to ease tensions.
“Our goal is to find solutions,” he told reporters in Oslo. “We feel the best solutions in Norwegian politics are found when Labor and Center work together.”
If they don’t agree, and Center exits, Labor is poised to govern on its own until the Sept. 8 vote. Norway, where minority governments are a normal part of politics, doesn’t hold snap elections.
Store has sought to keep his coalition intact. At a news conference on Friday, the prime minister praised their working relationship, saying both groups have respected each other enough to “to find good solutions” over the past 3 1/2 years.
“It’s a very serious situation because the one issue that really pulls the Center Party and the Labor Party apart is Norway’s relationship with the EU,” Johannes Bergh, research director with the Oslo-based Institute of Social Research, said by phone. “If there’s one issue that will break up this government, that’s it.”
Labor ruling alone until the elections is “certainly the most likely scenario” should the Center drop out, he added.
Store’s cabinet has held off on the adoption of the EU’s measures on renewable energy and power market as the Center has opposed the legislation. Labor on Thursday proposed passing the less contentious parts of the EU rules, an option that Center has also rejected. Norway has access to the single market through the European Economic Area agreement despite remaining outside of the EU.
The coalition, which also depends on parliamentary support from the Socialist Left party that officially isn’t part of the bloc, has faced an uphill battle to extend its term. Its popularity has been steadily sliding amid a string of ethics scandals, tax hikes that have triggered an outflow of the rich and fallout from a cost-of-living spike in the past years. Still, the latest polls showed the race is tightening again.
The 64-year-old premier has also been dealing with a revolt inside his own party — Norway’s biggest political group for most of the post-World War period — that’s not used to taking a beating in polls. Local media have reported on mounting pressure among its members, as well as the trade union lobby LO, to replace him.
Center’s politicians were cited as saying last week by local media that the move would shift power to the EU and make it more difficult for Norway’s local governments to veto wind power projects, among other things.
The bloc’s previous Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson in March last year urged Norway to adopt the measures by August, pointing out that EU and EEA “core energy legislation are diverging to a very worrying degree” or risk facing “any steps necessary” to preserve integrity of the single market.
Store said on Friday the parties “have been working on the case for several months,” and that the partners have faced “more difficult disputes” previously. He cited “signals from various levels in the EU” that could hamper Norway’s cooperation with the bloc in other areas, while adding that pressure from Brussels “can’t be characterized as ‘threats’.”
--With assistance from Kari Lundgren and Stephen Treloar.
(Updates with Center Party chairman from third paragraph)
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