Are we seeing the breakdown of fax-democracy and what will be the future for European Union (EU)-Norway relations? On the 2nd of May 1992 the members of European Free Trade Association (EFTA) (among them Norway), the European Community (EC) and the members of the EC signed the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement. The EEA agreements is based on the same four principles or freedoms as the EC – the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital among EEA countries. This means that EFTA countries that are part of the EEA enjoy free trade with the EU. But the agreement also gives the EEA countries some obligations. The EEA countries have to adopt EU law in the areas of social policy, consumer policy, environment, company law and statistics but since the EEA countries have no representation in the EU institutions in Brussels they have very little influence on the legislation that they have to adopt. This situation is sometimes called a fax-democracy where the Norwegian parliament (Stortinget) is just waiting for the latest legislation being faxed from the European Commission. The EEA countries also have the obligation to contribute to the reduction of economic and social disparities in the EEA trough the EEA and Norway Grants. According to the EEA Grants 2009-14 agreement the EEA Grants are at 197.7 million Euro a year and the EEA countries contribute according to size and financial strength. Since Norway is by far the largest of the three countries (Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein) they provide 95% of the grants. On top of that there is the Norway Grants that is another 160 million Euro paid by Norway annually. These contributions should be seen in connection with the fact that EEA countries cannot receive any funding from neither EU policies nor development funds.
On the 10th of April the Norwegian Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) held there 63. national convention, among other controversial topics was the EU directive “3rd Postal Service Directive” (3PSD). Even though the party leaders supported the directive they did not get the support for the directive from the national convention. This means that all three of the parties in the Norwegian government coalition are against the directive and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said that the Norwegian government will demand changes to the negotiations with the EU and that if the demands of the Norwegian government are not met they will make use of the reservation right in the EEA, that grants right to reserve itself against the transposition and implementation of any EU directive. If Norway makes use of the reservation right this will be the first time in history that an EEA country refuses to implement EU law. Now if that happens what is going to be the response of the EU? The EEA agreement gives the EU the right to suspend the whole or part of the EEA this could for Norway have an enormous impact since 80.3% of all Norwegian exports go to the EEA-area and that this accounts for 25.8% of the national budget. Will the EU be using that right? According to Erik Dale (Norwegian blogger and assistant to Paal Frisvold) the short answer will be that the EU has to. If the EU let a Norwegian reservation go unnoticed it will set a precedence for future reservations, and the EU regards the 3PSD as a central step in the completion of the common market and cannot let a small non-member reserve itself against such a central part. So what will be the outcome of this crisis? Again according to Erik Dale there seems to be two options that start with Norway breaking up with the EEA and leaving EFTA and thereafter either becomes a full member of the EU or become a single partner in a dynamic agreement with the EU.
The leader of the Norwegian Europa Movement Paal Frisvold has said in connection to this crisis that he is looking forward to it and that when Norwegians find out what the EEA really is about then they will not put up with it and he thinks that eventually this crisis will strengthen the EU membership positive side in Norway.
All in all this seems like it could be the breakdown of fax-democracy, and the prospects of future EU-Norwegian relations seem very interesting.
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