What is the Norway Model? Mode of Affiliation or Political Compromise?

John Erik Fossum (ARENA) has published an article on the Norway model and Brexit in Political Quarterly. The article is available for free until 23 May. 

Political Quarterly

Abstract

Brexit is a high‐stakes political process, but there is still no clear understanding of the political factors that underpin the various affiliation modes that the UK is currently debating. These are treated as quite static constructs, with emphasis on legal detail not the political and societal conditions that make them operate. What does the inclusion of the UK in the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement—which is the core component of the Norway model—do to that arrangement, itself a domestic Norwegian compromise? Will the arrangement continue to function, or will the UK's presence fundamentally alter or even abrogate the arrangement? This article spells out the specific political presuppositions that the Norway model rests on, and notes that the UK cannot emulate these. In addition, it argues that the more closely attached to the EEA agreement the UK is, the more precarious the arrangement will be.

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John Erik Fossum, ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo

'What is the Norway Model? Mode of Affiliation or Political Compromise?'

The Political Quarterly, online first 2019, doi: 10.1111/1467-923X.12684

Published May 2, 2019 3:10 PM - Last modified May 2, 2019 3:10 PM