Why did David Cameron decline ‘the Norway option’, and why did the Norwegian prime minister warn Britain against Brexit, saying ‘You’ll hate it’? Erik O Eriksen (University of Oslo) argues that for the UK, the so-called Norway option of EEA membership would amount to self-inflicted subservience to the EU. Norwegians have traded any say in EU rules for all-important access to the Single Market.
Norwegians voted against joining the EU in 1994. The argument that they should not be governed by laws decided elsewhere won the day. Paradoxically, however, the No vote has ended up…