Looking after West Norway Interests

Why West Norway is established in Brussels?
Even if Norway as a non EU-member is not directly part of the decision making of the European Union, it is nevertheless involved and needs regional representation in Brussels in order to look on Norwegian interests. EU is west Norway's largest export market and nearest neighbour. The country participates in most EU programs, for example, INTERREG and some cities are in EUROCITIES which has its head-quarters in Brussels. The scope of the European Economic Area agreement between Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and the EU is increasingly stretched.

Ownership/target groups
The owners of the office are the cities of Bergen and Alesund together with 15 other municipalities of Western Norway, and the Counties of Hordaland, More og Romsdal and Sogn og Fjordane. The main
target groups of the West Norway Office are public sector services, research and development, culture, business and industry.

What are the objectives?

• to establish and maintain West Norway presence in Brussels and provide services and facilities for the region,
• to promote West Norway as an inter esting partner to other European regions,
• to keep our partners informed of policy development, new initiatives and funding opportunities of direct relevance to them,
• to assist our partners and other institutions in efficient participation in EU programmes and initiatives.

What is achieved so far?
The Office was opened and has been operational since 6 May 2003 and is formally registered as a regional office in Brussels. The office has excellent location in "The Norwegian House" in Brussels. A substantial achievements are already seen. Numerous concrete inquiries were received: in 2003 around 120 from all target groups. A systematic publication of information followed -10 issues of a news-letter were published in 2003. A number of proactive meetings with key players in Brussels/the region were held and some networking relation were established. The office organised visitors' programmes, seminars and lectures. Finally, after successful campaign to recruit more members -additional 10 municipalities have joined the office.