Norway beneficial ownership Validation (2021)

On 10 June 2021, Norway was found to have made inadequate progress in in implementing the initial criteria for Requirement 2.5 on beneficial ownership of the 2019 EITI Standard. See Board decision 2021-35/BM-50.

Timeline of Validation and related materials

• 1 January 2021: Validation commenced
• January 2021: Stakeholder consultations

Secretariat assessment & comments

• 10 March 2021 - Draft Secretariat assessment [English]
• 10 April 2021 - Comments from the MSG  [English]
• 15 April 2021 - Final Secretariat assessment [English]

Validation Committee and Board review

• 27 April 2021 - VC Recommendation to the Board, Board Circular 307
• 10 June 2021 - Board decision 2021-35/BM-50, scorecard and corrective actions [English | French]

Background

Following Norway's second Validation, the EITI Board concluded on 27 February 2019 that Norway had made “satisfactory progress” in implementing the 2016 EITI Standard (see Board decision 2019-22/BM-42).

In June 2019, the EITI Board agreed a framework for assessing Requirement 2.5 on beneficial ownership. To ensure that progress on Requirement 2.5 would be assessed in all countries within a reasonable timeframe, the Board agreed that any country that had achieved overall “satisfactory progress” in a Validation that commenced or was concluded in 2019 would undergo a beneficial ownership Validation on 1 January 2021. The Board upheld this decision when agreeing on the transition to a new Validation model. The decision applies to four countries: Armenia, Germany, Nigeria and Norway.

The assessment follows the Board-agreed framework for phase 1 of assessing beneficial ownership disclosures. The Board agreed that between January 2020 and December 2021, the Validation would focus on whether the implementing country had met a set of initial criteria and provide recommendations for strengthening beneficial ownership disclosures. The progress in meeting other EITI Requirements has not been assessed as part of these Validations. Due to the transition to the new Validation model, the Board agreed an assessment on Requirement 2.5 only and did not agree an overall assessment of progress in implementing the 2019 EITI Standard.