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The articles conflate non-membership with isolationism. We’re part of almost every treaty available to us except EU, and in its place we have various other bridging treaties that the brexiters hope(d) to mimic.
I’m generally pro international cooperation and pro EU, I’m just not for Norwegian EU membership, as I fail to see which benefits in it that we do not have.
Democratic influence on the rules you’re bound by, is that really an insignificant benefit?
The author claims that Norway is the only Nordic country that isn’t in the EU. This is false. Iceland might be small, but it’s still a country.
In the current economic climate an EU membership seems appealing, but I’m not sure it’s the right choice in the medium-term. Norway has a very different, natural-resource heavy economy than the rest of the EU, and monetary policy would not alway align. I also think it’s important to try to maintain control over fisheries to a larger degree than the EU allows, and I already think the country is making too many concessions in this area.
Like a lot of European countries, Norway is a member of NATO. Even though the US can’t be relied upon anymore, I would still consider it a more credible defensive alliance than the EU. That’s why Finland and Sweden joined last year.
The author says that “…the EU [is] the only organisation for collective European agency in world affairs, and there is safety in numbers.” But the EU does not agree on anything. A third of the European parliament consists of Eurosceptics, and because of internal disagreements between member states, any shared foreign policy ends up completely milquetoast.
In the long term it might be worth it to reform the EU in a way that will allow Norway, Iceland and Switzerland to join and open up a path for the UK to come back.
The EU is always changing. The EU of today isn’t the same as the one the UK left, or the EU that was formed by the Maastricht treaty.
Might not always change in the way some people wish, but the change is constant.
Join us
It looks like Norwegians are not that interested in international politics.
Norway is implementing most of EU rules and regulations quicker than most member states. We are a member in almost all but voting rights on said rules and regulations.
