Norway
is not a
member state of
the European Union (EU), but is, in
effect, required to adopt much EU legislation due to its
participation in the European
Economic Area (EEA), through the European Free Trade
Association (EFTA). Additionally, Norway has chosen to
opt into many of the Union's programmes, institutions and
activities. Whether or not the country should apply for
conventional membership has been one of the most dominant and
divisive issues in Norwegian political and economic debate since
World War II.
History
- See also Norwegian
EC referendum, 1972 and Norwegian EU referendum,
1994
In 1963,
Norway and the United Kingdom
applied for membership in the European Economic Community
(EEC). When France
rebuffed the
UK's application, accession negotiations with Norway, Denmark,
Ireland and the UK were suspended. This happened
twice.
Norway completed its negotiations for the terms to govern a
Norwegian membership in the EEC on 22 January 1972. Following an
overwhelming parliamentary majority in favour of joining the EEC in
early 1972, the government decided to put the question to a popular
referendum, scheduled for September 24
and 25. The result was that 53.5% voted against membership and
46.5% for it. The
Norwegian
Labour Party government led by
Trygve Bratteli resigned over the outcome of
the referendum, and a coalition government led by
Lars Korvald took over.
Norway entered into a trade agreement with the community following
the outcome of the referendum. That trade agreement remained in
force until Norway joined the
European Economic Area in 1994.
On 28 November 1994, yet another referendum was held, narrowing the
margin but yielding the same result: 52.2% opposed membership and
47.8% in favour, with a turn-out of 88.6%. There are currently no
plans to file another application.
As of 2009, Norway has chosen to opt into EU projects and its total
financial contribution linked to the EEA agreement consists of
contributions related to the participation in these projects
(
Schengen Agreement,
Europol,
EU Drug
Monitoring Centre,
Frontex, the
European Defence Agency and the
Union's battlegroups)
and part made available to development projects for reducing social
and economic disparities in the EU (
EEA and Norway Grants). EEA EFTA
states fund their participation in programmes and agencies by an
amount corresponding to the relative size of their gross domestic
product (GDP) compared to the GDP of the whole EEA. The EEA
EFTA participation
is hence on an equal footing with
EU member
states. The total EEA EFTA commitment amounts to 2,4% of the
overall EU programme budget. In 2008 Norway’s contribution was €188
million. Throughout the programme period 2007—2013, the Norwegian
contribution will increase substantially in parallel with the
development of the EU programme budget, from €130 million in 2007
to €290 million in 2013. For the EEA and Norway Grants from 2004 to
2009, Norway is providing almost €1.3 billion.
Characteristics of the debate
Because these positions to a great extent cut across ideological
boundaries, various political parties have dealt with the issue in
different ways. The
Centre
Party has maintained the most principled stand against
membership, and though parties such as the
Conservative party and the
Labour Party support
membership in their platform, they allow for a minority to oppose
it.
Most
dramatically, the Liberal Party
split over the issue in 1972 at the famed party conference in
Røros
and did not
reunite until 1989.
The EU membership crosses the traditional left-right axis in
Norwegian politics. Since the Labour Party lost its dominance in
Norwegian politics, all governments have been a coalition of
several political parties. Because the EU membership issue almost
certainly would break up any conceivable government coalition
(except maybe a rainbow coalition of Labour and the Conservatives),
no government has raised the subject and no opposition party has
stated any desire to do so either.
Disagreements on this issue have been known to create divisiveness
within families and local communities. Although there is a general
pattern that urban communities favour membership and rural
communities do not, there have been vocal minorities in every area
of Norway.
Complicating the matter has been that a great variety of political
and emotional factors have been raised in the debate. Radical
socialists oppose membership because of an opposition to
conservative economic and political forces that concern them within
Europe; opponents on the right are concerned about an infringement
on Norwegian culture; and others are opposed in principle to
compromising Norwegian sovereignty. Some social democrats see
membership as a way to participate in the global social democratic
movement, whereas libertarians favor open markets for capital,
services, and goods.
Many observers felt that the Centre Party misread the situation
when they interpreted the narrow majority against membership in
1994 as an endorsement of the party's general platform. Party
politics continue to be confounded by this issue, and most
governments tend to avoid it.
Norwegian political parties' positions on membership
Currently, parties supporting or opposing EU membership are to be
found in both right-wing and left-wing coalitions: as a result,
most governments contain pro- and anti-EU elements. To avoid a new
debate on EU, anti-EU parties usually require "
suicide paragraphs" in
government-coalition agreements, meaning that if some party in the
coalition officially begins a new debate on EU, the government will
fall. This has been true for both the previous centre-right
Bondevik government and the
current centre-left
Stoltenberg
government. The last general elections (2009) saw an increase in
support for the two pro-European parties: the Labour Party
(Government) and the Conservative Party (opposition), whereas the
Eurosceptical parties (both in the governing coalition and in the
opposition) stagnated. The following table shows the different
parliamentary parties' stance on EU-membership, sorted by their
approval rating in the
latest election
(separated only by government and opposition parties):
Opinion polling
The average of opinion polls shows that besides a period of
favoring EU-membership around the years 2003-2004, with the
greatest support for EU-membership exploding around late 2002/early
2003 with 60-65% favoring membership for some months, the "No"-side
has generally been in the lead for the last years. From 2005
onwards, the eurosceptics have also enjoyed a steady increase in
support, with, on average, over 60% not wanting EU-membership in
the latest polls. One polling firm in April 2009 also stated that
it had now seen a "No" majority for 50 months in a row.
Individual polls
See also
References
-
http://www.ena.lu/referendum-norway-25-september-1972-022100296.html
- Miles, Lee. The European Union and the Nordic Countries.1996.
Routledge, p. 133.
- http://arbeiderparti.no/book.asp?ord=EU
- http://www.sv.no/politikken/eu/
- http://www.senterpartiet.no/category8867.html
-
http://www.frp.no/?module=Articles;action=Article.publicShow;ID=14345/
- http://www.hoyre.no/temaer/europa_og_eu
-
http://www.krf.no/portal/page?_pageid=33,202561&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&element_id=828651
- http://www.venstre.no/sentralt/organisasjon/artikkel/2989/
- From the
homepage of Professor of Political Science at the University of
Oslo, Bernt Aardal
- dagbladet.no - Nordmenn fortsatt negative til
EU-medlemskap
External links
Norwegian government
NGOs related to the question of membership
Wikis
Facts
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