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Norway Warns Uk Against Eu Exit

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jake-the-peg | 14:26 Sun 23rd Dec 2012 | News
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Norway's Foreign minister has cautioned the UK against leaving the EU.

Norway is not a member and is used as a model by Euro-skeptics of how the UK could continue after leaving the EU.

"We are not at the table when decisions are made" he said

Is this a prophetic warning of how the UK could lose it's voice and influence in the world's largest economy?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20830201
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Well perhaps Norway would like to tell us why they are not in. Looks like someone has found the gold mine and doesn't want to share it. The current disasterous state for the EU has happenned when we are at the table so not being at the table seems quite attractive! Why do all Europhobes assume that leaving means we become mortal enemies. We can still have cooperation and agreements without the percieved need for subjugation into what is fast becomming a fedeal disaster area..
It's not what the Norwegian people want, they have twice rejected possible membership.

Neither do the British people, but we haven't had a say in it so far.
Norway is the second wealthiest Nation (per capita) they are a net external creditor of debt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway#Economy
If that's the price of "not being at the table" I'd say they bear it well! Someone remind me how much the EU nations owe! We could do a lot worse than copy Norway!
That's called oil and gas reserves that we do not have, certainly not on a per capita basis.
I remember a Referendum in 1972 or 1972 AOG. We voted Yes.
1971 or 2. Sorry.
It was 1973 and we voted to stay in the EEC, we where already in. Yes was correct for the EEC not for the mess it has become.
Before we joined they gave the same arguments. Not part of the loop and decision making process. The problem that was when they had 6 important members. I've lost count how many there are now but is it in the mid 20's and rising every year.

This has diluted the say of any one member so we would be better joining the block of non EU members where our voice could be really heard.
What people don't seem to get is that if you want to sell into the EU, you need to obey EU regulations whether or not you are a member (just as, if you want to sell into the US, you need to conform to US regulations).

So, leaving the EU wouldn't free us up from the regulations, it would just mean we had no say in the formulating of them.

And that's the point that Mr Eide is making.
Also bear in mind that Mr Eide is a staunch Europhile (and should probably leave Norway for the pastures that he obviously considers are far richer elsewhere - I‘m quite sure his chums in the EU could find him a suitably lucrative post despite his failure to persuade his countryfolk to embrace all that is good with the EU ).

As has been said, fortunately for the Norwegian people, Mr Eide’s views are not those that count. The Norwegians have twice rejected the “golden opportunity” to join the EU and they seem to have managed quite well despite not being “at the table”. The UK has been "at the table" for over forty years and a lot of good that has done us. In that time the table has become occupied by increasing numbers of nations whose interests are diametrically opposed to those of the UK.

And just to avoid any confusion, the UK has no voice or influence in the worlds largest economy which, of course, is that of the USA. The EU is not a single economy, neither is the Euro zone and nor, thankfully, are they ever likely to be. The EU is a trading bloc made up of 27 disparate nations with very little in common other than they happen to be grouped together on a particular part of the globe. The Euro zone is a smaller but equally disparate collection of nations who are all using a single currency that suits none of them (except one, perhaps, though even that is looking questionable). It is the very fact that they do not form a single economy or fiscal union that is at the heart of all its problems and Norway is well off out of the mess. Long may they prosper. If only the UK could do the same.
Can Norwegians move, and reside, within the EU countries as freely as British citizens can?
Lerwick lies 662 km from Oslo and 966 km from London (just a thought for 2014).
Yes rojash but that works both ways. UK is a huge customer for the EU, commercial inerests will always find a way around political dogma, EU/UK would arrive at trading agreements along the lines of those envisaged when we said yes to the EEC.

Khandro, Non EU citizens would be subject to the standard rules for non EU citizens for each of the EU nations that they visited. So it would be no different to say an American travelling around the EU.
"Can Norwegians move, and reside, within the EU countries as freely as British citizens can?"

In fact they can move more freely as they are part of the Schengen agreement, which the UK is not. UK citizens need a passport to enter other EU countries, Norwegian citizens do not need a passport to enter most of the EU nations (except the UK, Ireland, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus).

No they cannot automatically reside there. But why would they want to?
Not sure how the position of Lerwick is relevent here!
judge is correct I didn't know they where in the Shengen.
You'll understand the relevance come 2014 ZedBloke.
“…if you want to sell into the EU, you need to obey EU regulations whether or not you are a member (just as, if you want to sell into the US, you need to conform to US regulations). “

Quite so, rojash. The big difference is that individual nations enter into trading agreements that suit them both. In doing so they do not have to consider the requirements of any other country. We may want to export to Slovakia. But if we do we have to adhere to regulations which also suit (or at least have been approved by) 25 other nations.

Furthermore if we trade with, say, the US, Washington does not insist on (among many, many other things):

The imposition of a uniform tax system
The imposition of uniform employment regulations
The imposition of a uniform set of regulations for waste disposal
An enormous levy each year which is distrusted among its 50 States as it sees fit.
Uniform environmental controls

It does not suggest it should have “sight of “ or control over UK budgets.

I could go on, but I won’t. In short all such a trading agreement will address is the trade. It will not concern itself with matters of control and regulation. That’s what membership of the EU entails - control and regulation which goes far beyond the concerns of a single market. Certainly we would not have a say in those matters but since they would not concern us, why should we?
don't keep me in suspense wharton what's happenning in 2014?
In 2014 Scotland will be an independent country. All the rather silly arguments about our membership/non-membership of the EU are....well, rather silly. We will form alliances with the Scandinavian countries, Norway in particular, and the revenue from oil, gas and fishing will make us one of the richest countries in the world. It's rather simple really.

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