Norway and the EU

The biggest policy issue in Norway in the post-war years has been whether or not to join the Common Market, or the EU as it is now known. A non-socialist government, headed by the Centre Party's Per Borten as Prime Minister and supported by the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, the Centre Party, and the Christian Democratic Party, was formed following the election victory in 1965. When Great Britain applied for membership in 1967, the issue of Norwegian membership took on an added urgency. The Storting voted 136 to 13 to renew a previous application from 1962.

The application unleashed violent forces in Norwegian political opinion. Views became polarized, and the Borten government collapsed in 1971. A Labour Party government, led by Trygve Bratteli as Prime Minister, completed membership negotiations with the EC and submitted the results to a referendum in the fall of 1972. The outcome was 53 - 47 per cent vote rejecting membership in the EC.

The Bratteli government resigned following the referendum. A centrist government, with Lars Korvald of theChristian Democratic Party as Prime Minister, conducted negotiations with the EC on a trade agreement, which regulated the relationship between Norway and the Common Market up to the beginning of the 1990s.

The referendum on EC membership in 1972 left its mark on the Norwegian political party system. The Liberals split, and both of the new parties lost much of their influence. The general election of 1973 delivered a severe drop-off in support for the Labour Party among EC opponents outside the capital. Voters shifted their loyalty to the newly-established Socialist Electoral Association, which also swallowed up the Socialist Left Party and the communist voters. The Association captured 16 seats in the Storting. The Electoral Association was later succeeded by the Socialist Left Party, which today has the support of just over 6 per cent of the voters.

Despite the setback of 1973, the Labour Party maintained a minority government through to 1981, when the Conservative Party took over power with Kåre Willoch as Prime Minister. In 1983 the purely Conservative Party government was expanded to a three-party government, with representatives from the Conservative Party, the Christian Democratic Party, and the Centre Party. The Willoch government held the majority in the Storting from 1981 to 1985. Storting elections were held that year, and two representatives from the liberalistic Progress Party held the balance of power between the two major power blocks in the national assembly. The Progress Party sided with the socialist parties on a vote and the government was brought down.

With the exception of a break of a year or so from 1989 to 1990, the Labour Party has held power in more recent years and formed minority governments, with Gro Harlem Brundtland as Prime Minister the whole time.

During the short interval from 1989 to 1990, Norway had a non-socialist coalition government comprising the Conservatives, the Christian Democrats and the Centre Party, with Conservative Jan P. Syse as Prime Minister.

The coalition was short-lived, primarily because the EC issue had cropped up again. The antagonism between the Conservatives (who favoured EC membership) and the Centre Party (who were against) eventually became so acute that the co-operative effort on governing the country eventually broke down.

Another referendum was held in the fall of 1994. Once again, Norwegian rejected membership in what was by now known as the EU: 52.5 per cent voted against, while 47.5 per cent voted for. The EU issue attracted as much attention as it had in 1972. Voter turnout in 1994 was in fact 88.5 per cent, some 9.4 per cent up from the previous time.

Sweden, Finland, and Austria had voted to join the EU shortly before the Norwegian vote, thereby leaving only Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) at the start of 1995.

In contrast to the Labour Party government of Trygve Bratteli, which in 1972 resigned following the defeat on the EC issue, the Brundtland government 22 years later continued on as though nothing had happened.

Although the opposite sides of the EU debate in the 1994 referendum were very unyielding, both between political parties and also within parties, between occupational groups and between rural and urban voters, the situation normalised fairly quickly once the vote was over.

Centre Party leader Anne Enger Lahnstein, who was the undisputed "No queen" during the referendum campaign, continued to fight after the vote against what her party called "continuous EU accommodation". This did not prevent the Centre Party from suffering considerable setbacks during the municipal elections in 1995, however.

A reassuring factor for many has certainly been Gro Harlem Brundtland's statement to the effect that Norway will not likely attempt new membership negotiations with the EU in this century.

Another very important consideration is that the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA), which was signed by the EU and the EFTA countries in 1992, ensures Norwegian participation in the development of the EEA, gives the country access to the EU common market and opens the door to co-operation in a number of adjacent areas.

Under the Agreement, Norwegian industry is guaranteed equal terms of competition with other EFTA and EU countries on the Western European market. Institutions have also been established which give Norway influence over the formulation of new sets of rules in the areas covered by the Agreement.

Source http://odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/history/032005-990454/