The Labour Party (Ap) wants to adopt parts of the EU's energy package, but its coalition partner the Centre Party (Sp) has stated that it will withdraw from the government cooperation if Ap pushes it through.
Both parties held extraordinary meetings on Thursday evening to discuss the situation, and neither party is backing down from its stance.
After Ap's meeting, Energy Minister Terje Aasland told NRK that he has presented three EU directives from 2018 for consideration by the government.
These are directives that are important for Norwegian business.
Sp's parliamentary leader, Marit Arnstad, responded in NRK's "Debatten":
I don't trust the Labour Party on this issue.
Aasland and Ap want to speed up the process of getting the three directives through before the autumn election, which Sp claims is because they hope to get the entire energy package through after the election, in cooperation with the Conservative Party. Sp, on the other hand, does not want to tie Norway closer to the EU's energy market.
Arnstad refused to answer whether the dispute means that they will withdraw from the cooperation prematurely if the parties cannot agree on the issue.
This means first and foremost that Ap has put us in a difficult situation, she says to NRK.
