Norway’s deal with the EU still holds lessons for Britain

NORWAY’S peculiar relationship with the European Union—it abides by most EU rules but has little say in writing them—might be a democratic outrage, a diplomatic relic and an international oddity, but it once worked out well for Torild Skogsholm. In 2003 Ms Skogsholm was invited to join her fellow European transport ministers aboard a cruise ship in the Aegean (Greece held the rotating EU presidency at the time). Asked to leave the room when the ministers began to draw up legislative proposals, she had little choice but to sun herself on the ship’s deck. The tan she earned, she says, was the envy of her friends in Oslo.

Britain’s ministers may be almost as sun-starved as their Norwegian cousins, but they will not be aping their approach to the EU. Through its membership of the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes two tiddlers, Iceland and Liechtenstein, Norway follows most single-market rules drawn up in Brussels and must accept the free movement of EU workers. This was enough for Theresa May, Britain’s prime minister, to rule out the Norwegian model for her country’s post-Brexit relations with the EU. After all, Britain voted last June to take back control from unaccountable EU institutions. Why leave, if only to fall back in line?