Norway offers to increase EU gas supplies: Norway’s Foreign Minister Børge Brende has suggested that his country could increase the amount of gas it supplies to the EU to help reduce Western Europe’s dependence on Russia for its energy. “I think that Norway can contribute to the energy security of the European Union,” he said during a discussion about the EU’s energy security. “Russia is now supplying 30% of the EU’s gas, and Norway 20%. We can increase gas supply in the coming years.” During the same debate, the European Commissioner for Energy and Climate Miguel Arias Cañete emphasised the need to find reliable routes of gas supplies to the EU from the Caspian region as well as from Russia.