JUDGMENT OF THE COURT of 21 May 2025 in Case E-18/24 – The Norwegian State, represented by the Ministry of Energy v Greenpeace Nordic and Nature and Youth Norway (Environment – Directive 2011/92/EU – Assessment of the effects of projects on the environment – Article 3(1) – Projects covered by Annex I – Extraction of petroleum and natural gas that will be sold to third parties – Principle of sincere cooperation – Requirement to nullify the unlawful consequences of a breach of EEA law)
Date: 2025-05-21
Institutions: EFTA Court
Subjects: European Economic Area, Norway, environmental impact, extraction of oil, gas industry, greenhouse gas, industrial project, project evaluation, reduction of gas emissions, retroactivity of a law








C_202506205EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/6205


13.11.2025






JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
of 21 May 2025
         
in Case E-18/24
The Norwegian State, represented by the Ministry of Energy v Greenpeace Nordic and Nature and Youth Norway


(Environment – Directive 2011/92/EU – Assessment of the effects of projects on the environment – Article 3(1) – Projects covered by Annex I – Extraction of petroleum and natural gas that will be sold to third parties – Principle of sincere cooperation – Requirement to nullify the unlawful consequences of a breach of EEA law)


(C/2025/6205)

In Case E-18/24, the Norwegian State, represented by the Ministry of Energy v Greenpeace Nordic and Nature and Youth Norway – REQUEST to the Court under Article 34 of the Agreement between the EFTA States on the Establishment of a Surveillance Authority and a Court of Justice by Borgarting Court of Appeal (Borgarting lagmannsrett), concerning the interpretation of Article 3(1) of Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014, the Court, composed of Páll Hreinsson, President (Judge-Rapporteur), Bernd Hammermann and Michael Reiertsen, Judges, gave judgment on 21 May 2025, the operative part of which is as follows:






(1)


Greenhouse gas emissions that will be released from the combustion of petroleum and natural gas extracted as part of a project listed in point 14 of Annex I to Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014, and then sold to third parties, constitute ‘effects’ of that project within the meaning of the Directive.










(2)


A national court is required under Article 3 EEA, to the extent possible under national law, to eliminate the unlawful consequences of a failure to carry out a full environmental impact assessment required under Directive 2011/92/EU, as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU. However, this does not preclude regularisation through the conducting of such an assessment while the project is under way or even after it has been completed, on the twofold condition that:






—


national rules allowing for that regularisation do not provide the parties concerned with an opportunity to circumvent the rules of EEA law or to dispense with applying them, and










—


any subsequent or ancillary assessment carried out for regularisation purposes is not conducted solely in respect of the project’s future environmental impact, but must also take into account its environmental impact since the time of completion of that project.




It is for the referring court to assess whether the conditions are satisfied in the main proceedings, in the light of the content of the national provisions and the information available to it.










(3)


A national court may not retroactively dispense with the obligation to assess the effects under Article 3(1) of the Directive 2011/92/EU, as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU.






ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/6205/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)