Don’t do the Norway model, Norway tells Britain

OSLO — Andy Burnham has been warned by Norway’s leader not to seek to emulate his country’s EU relationship ahead of a summit with European leaders. In a POLITICO interview, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said he would not recommend the model his country has with the EU to Britain, because the two economies are so different. Norway, with a population of 5.6 million, is a member of the EU single market through the European Economic Area (EEA) but is not a fully fledged EU member state — and therefore has no voting rights over the bloc’s commercial rules.

“There’s an obvious democratic deficit in it, but pragmatically, all [Norwegian] Parliaments since 1995 have said this is a reasonable way of doing it,” Støre said. “I don’t see Britain do that. I don’t see Canada do that.” The U.K. and Canada are both in the process of seeking closer ties to the bloc of 27 countries, which the U.K. voted to leave a decade ago. Burnham has said in the long term he wants to see the U.K. rejoin — and is aiming to scope ideas for better trade terms later this month at a summit with EU leaders.

He has said all options should be looked at. Støre said in addition to being part of the single market, Norway has had to sign 100 additional agreements with Brussels, covering climate, students, security and other matters. “I can tell you after Brexit, British friends called me and said, tell us about the Norwegian way of doing it. And I said, if you left the EU because there was too much Brussels, don’t take the Norwegian version,” he said.

“Because here, you know, basically we are taking most of their decisions, we implement them. But a country of 5 million people that has been a completely open economy, always adapting to standards, to be part of the global economy, very open economy, we can live with that.” He confirmed he would not recommend the Norway model to Britain “because I think it’s very different, you know, and they have to find their solution.” Støre added that he could see the U.K., Canada and Norway working strategically together on issues that also matter to the EU, including space cooperation and supply chains for rare earth minerals.

Støre has been leader of Norway’s Labor Party since 2014 and prime minister since 2021.