Why Norway refuses to join the European Union

Europe is sometimes confused with the European Union, but they are different. The European Union, created to promote integration, has only 27 member states because some European countries have decided to remain outside this organization. Such is the case of Norway, which despite having strong ties with most European countries never belonged to the European Union. However, Norway tried to join what was then called the European Economic Community in 1962 and 1967. But France vetoed the UK’s application and, as a domino effect the applications of other countries with strong economic ties to the UK; Norway, Ireland and Denmark were suspended. In the next two attempts, membership of the European Community was put to a referendum and in both 1972 and 1994, the Norwegians voted against joining the European Union. Thirty years after the last referendum things have not changed much. Even three weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a poll was conducted asking Norwegians if they wanted their country to be a member of the European Union and 53% said no. So the question is: why do most Norwegians not want their country to be a member of the European Union? Some sources of interest: - Erik Engheim (2021). How Norway Got Rich Against All Odds Before Oil - Isak Ladegaard (2012). Why Norwegians never wanted EU membership - Nordic Labour Journal (2023). Norwegians still largely negative to EU membership Music: Whatdafunk by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Artist: #economicsnation #norway