Why wouldn’t we prefer the EFTA/Norway option, Mrs Solberg?

Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg has intervened in the UK referendum debate, claiming that we wouldn’t like life on the outskirts of the 28-member state bloc.

The Independent comments that  this “will come as a blow to Eurosceptics and Leave campaigners who often cite Norway’s relationship with the EU as the model for Britain to emulate.”  Oh really?

The article stated that we would have to join the Schengen passport-free zone if we re-joined EFTA and emulated Norway. NOT TRUE.

It then quoted Mrs Solberg’s claim that a simalr relationship to that which her country enjoys with the EU “is going to be difficult for Britain, because then Brussels will decide without the Brits being able to participate in the decision-making.”   NOT TRUE. Norway doesn’t have a vote, but as we have pointed out many times on this website,  it is widely consulted in the decision-making process.

The Norwegian Premier’s intervention is all about Norwegian domestic politics. She and her Conservative Party still cling forlornly to a hope that her country may one day join the EU. Brexit would bury that hope once and for all.

Maybe she would best be advised to keep her mouth shut and let us decide if we prefer her country’s relationship with the EU to that which we currently have to suffer. After all:-

• Norway isn’t subject to the Common Fisheries Policy
• Norway isn’t subject to the Common Agricultural Policy
• Norway isn’t subject the the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy
• Norway isn’t subject to the European Court of Justice
• Norway only has to apply approximately 25% of the total EU Acquis and even here, if it refuses, no one can force it to do so.
• Norway can negotiate its own trading arrangements
• Norway is represented by its own countrymen, not the EU, on global bodies like the WTO
• Norway is not jointly and severally liable for any EU debts
• Norway is not part of political project seeking ever-closer union

Click here to download a simple chart showing the obvious advantages of withdrawal from the EU and following Norway’s example and re-joining EFTA.

It doesn’t sound a bad deal to me!

(With thank to Hugo van Randwyck for the chart)