ESA: - We do not make the rules

- ESA has done what the Court requested. We do not ignore the EFTA Court.

- ESA has not established new regulations for the regionally differentiated social security contributions scheme in the transportation and energy sectors, as the High North News article claims. These changes have come following negotiations between the EU and Norway, Anne M. Vestbakke, Head of Communications at ESA, says to High North News.

Follows up the regulations

- ESA’s role lies only in executing the EEA regulations once they have been established. We make sure Norwegian authorities are in keeping with the EEA regulations when awarding state subsidies, Vestbakke says, and she emphasizes:

- In 2014, Norway submitted the regionally differentiated social security contribution scheme to ESA for approval, and ESA greenlighted it. It is correct that the EFTA Court annulled the approval of the part of the scheme that covers ambulant operations. However, that was a result of the Court’s wanting ESA to investigate this part of the scheme in particular.

We have done what the Court said

The EFTA Court did not consider whether the regulation as such is legal or not. The fact that ESA now re-approves the regulation does not mean that we ‘ignore the Court’. On the contrary; we have done what the Court requested and have conduced our own investigation into the part of the regulation that covers ambulant operations.

ESA’s conclusion is that this part of the regionally differentiated social security contributions scheme is in keeping with the EEA regulations, and that Norway thus may re-introduce it, says Anne M. Vestbakke of ESA.

You can read ESA’s ruling from May 31^st here.