The EU is said to be maintaining its ban on oil exploration in the Arctic

The EU is set to extend a ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic this autumn, according to a spokesperson for the European Commission.

This is despite protests from Norway, one of Europe’s largest suppliers of fossil fuels.

“Going forward, our position on the moratorium will remain unchanged: our guidelines aim to tackle climate change and environmental degradation, and to support sustainable economic development,” an EU spokesperson wrote to the Norwegian public service broadcaster NRK.

The same message has also been conveyed to the AFP news agency.

The ban is to be confirmed in the new Arctic Strategy, which the European Commission is due to present in October.

“Norway decides on Norwegian resources, not the EU,” Norway’s Energy Minister Terje Aasland wrote in a comment to the NTB news agency.

Norway is the EU’s largest supplier of fossil gas and one of the largest suppliers of oil, alongside the US and Kazakhstan.

^{Cover image: Norway’s Minister for Energy, Terje Aasland, of the Labour Party. Archive photo: Carina Johansen, NTB/TT}