The uneasy relationship between Norway and the process of European integration

Résumé du document

The construction of the European Union has always experienced difficulties in triggering enthusiasm within the European nations. According to Jacques Delors, "it is difficult to fall in love with a common market". Even though the European Union (EU) is now much more than a free trade area, the Euro-skepticism is still a widely spread phenomenon within all the peoples of Europe and this crisis of legitimacy endangers its durable existence and efficiency. However, despite this apparent lack of popularity, the EU has never ceased to attract new members and partners. The ECSC-6 or EEC-6 has increased progressively, but the target is still to become a part of the EU-27 nowadays. The construction of the European Union managed to unify almost the entire the European continent in fifty years, despite the Iron Curtain, the repeated crises, the plurality of political visions of the states and the difficulty in reaching popular support. Even though the process of European integration managed to attract Great Britain, as well as the former dictatorships of Spain, Portugal, Greece, the majority of the Nordic countries and the former "popular democracies", it wasn't successful in convincing a majority of the very skeptical Norwegians. Since Norway's first negotiations for EEC-membership in 1962, twenty-one countries became members of what is now the European Union.

Extraits

[...] Thus, in 1960, there was a general consensus in Norway to keep being outside the ECs as Norwegians were very satisfied with their comfortable trading place within the EFTA and with their security provided thanks to their participation in NATO. However, this ideal situation was not going to last long as one year after the creation of the EFTA, Great Britain decided to ask for membership. Even though GB was going to take part in the ECs only in 1973, the debate whether to integrate the ECs or not, broke-down the general consensus of Norwegians' society on the way Norway should participate in regional economic co-operations. [...]

[...] The reality showed that Norway didn't experience many economic difficulties since Norwegians first rejected the idea to integrate the ECs in 1972. However, perhaps will Norway decide one day to become a “normal European state”? Bibliography European Integration and National Identity, Hansen and Waever, Routledge, London Norway, European integration and Atlantic Security, Clive Archer and Ingrid Sogner, Sage Publications, London Foreword. Reluctant Europeans, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland in the process of integration, Sieglinde Gstöhl, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Colorado The following sources come from this book: Typisk Norsk, Hylland Eriksen, C. Huitfeldt forlag EF og europeisk samarbeid, Norge. European Union, Lange. [...]

[...] These contradictory aspirations and visions led to the original present position and status of Norway in respect of the European Union. Norwegians' strong attachment to their national identity and its consequences: a phobia of foreign influence want to maintain the right to preside over what nature has bestowed on us [ ] because we want to remain a nation.”[1] Erik Baadland One of the main interpretations that are given from Norway's reluctance to integrate the European Communities and then the European Union is its strong national identity resulting from its long struggle for independence. [...]

[...] Speech by Minister Arne Skaug, annexed to Norway, Ministry for foreign affairs, planene for at europeisk frihandelsomrade”, T.meld. nr (1957), Oslo March 1957 Det Norske EFTA-sporet i 1950-ara, Hansen. Appeal of the “Movement against membership in the Common Market the December 1961. “Norway and Western European Economic Integration”, Hanssen and Sandegren, Cooperation and Conflict http://ec.europa.eu/comm/external_relations/norway/intro/index.htm Speech by Centre Right Member of Parliament Erik Braadland, in the early 1960s, quoted in Eriksen and Lundestad 1972:223, and also in European Integration and National Identity, Hansen and Waever, Routledge, London p.110 European Integration and National Identity, Hansen and Waever, Routledge, London p.115 Reluctant Europeans, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland in the process of integration, Sieglinde Gstöhl, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Colorado p.33 Typisk Norsk, Hylland Eriksen, C. [...]

[...] The fact that Norwegian capital exports industry and fishery could have a free access to these foreign markets was the source of high economic incentives to participate in such a regional cooperation. Plus, the lack of supranational institutions was supposed not to threaten Norway's welfare system and thus, few political impediments existed for Norway to be part of such a structure. However, the impossibility to create such an “OEEC-wide free trade area[14]” because of the French President De Gaulle's opposition to it led to the creation of a less ambitious project at the level of the geographical and economic sizes: the EFTA. [...]