ESA calls on Norway to comply with EEA rules for the protection of the water environment

The EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) has today opened infringement proceedings against Norway for not correctly and completely implementing the Water Framework Directive and for incorrectly applying it to two projects concerning the disposal of mining waste into fjords.

Under the Directive, the EEA States are obliged to prevent the ecological deterioration of all water bodies. An exemption can only be granted under strict conditions if a project serves an overriding public interest, or provides benefits to human health, safety, or sustainable development that outweigh its environmental impact.

ESA finds that Norway has not correctly and completely implemented the exemption rules into national law, among other things because the Norwegian implementation does not require that the interest served is of a public nature. The Water Framework Directive was incorporated into the EEA Agreement in 2009 and is implemented through the Norwegian Water Regulation.

In addition, Norway has relied on this exemption to approve the disposal of mining waste in Førdefjord, on the country's west coast, and Repparfjord, in northern Norway. In both cases, the projects are expected to worsen the ecological status of the affected water bodies.

ESA concludes that Norway has not demonstrated an overriding public interest to justify such deterioration. It therefore finds that the conditions for granting the exemption have not been met.

In its assessment, ESA relies on interpretation of EEA law provided by the EFTA Court in an advisory opinion of March 2025.

By failing to correctly and completely implement the relevant provision of the Directive into national law and by authorising projects leading to the deterioration of water bodies without a valid exemption, Norway has failed to fulfil its obligations under the EEA Agreement.

ESA has therefore decided to send a letter of formal notice to Norway, the first step in an infringement procedure against an EEA EFTA State. Norway now has two months to respond to ESA's concerns before ESA decides whether to take the case further.

Read ESA's decision here .

Photograph by: © Simo Räsänen.

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