Norway Flirts with EU Membership as 'Counterweight' to U.S.
January 28, 2003
Kjell Magne Bondevik didn’t like the EU. Until last weekend, that is. Up to that point, Norway’s prime minister had been the country’s starkest opponent to joining the European Union.
The head of the Christian People’s Party had led the "no to EU" campaigns to victory when plebiscites were held in the Scandinavian state in 1972 and 1994. When he took over as prime minster in October 2001, heading up a coalition of conservatives and right-wing liberals, the question of joining the EU was still taboo. With its huge oil reserves and natural gas riches, Norway was just fine on its own, thank you very much, so the argument went.
But as the EU's eastward expansion starts to get under way, Norway’s isolationist stance has begun to raise fears that playing in with the rich, independent states like Switzerland may not be enough any more. Now Norway has begun to utter the words nobody thought it’d ever say: it wants to establish a far closer relationship with the European Union and its 15 member states. Bondevik, though, is still wary.
In no hurry
“I do not want to make any preliminary decision," Bondevik said. "I have not yet changed my stance and I do not intend to hurry in making up my mind. There is so much going on in the EU that we have to inform ourselves to which EU the population is going to take a stance on."
Until now, politicians in Norway had decided that no decision would be made until after the next national elections in 2005. But with recent surveys revealing that two-thirds of the Norwegian population would welcome entry into the EU, a decision may well come sooner.
Bondevik says two factors hold the key to him saying yes to EU entry. Once the EU's eastward expansion is completed, the need to create a strong European counter-balance to the United States' super power will be paramount.
However, the ongoing problems with European fisheries policy and the costly Common Agricultural Policy still pose a problem in Bondevik's mind.
But with most politicians in Norway pleading for entry into Europe’s biggest club and the popular opinion growing for entry into the EU, the question is not to much whether Norway will join the EU, but rather when.