Lies told to Norway before its referendum to leave the EU

The Norway model? Trade union leader insists country is freer and richer OUTSIDE the EUA LEADING Norwegian trade unionist has painted British voters a vision of a richer and freer country OUTSIDE the EU.

By GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL REPORTER

PUBLISHED: 17:43, Wed, May 25, 2016 | UPDATED: 17:56, Wed, May 25, 2016

Amid the EU referendum debate, Norway has regularly been used by both pro-EU and Brexit supporters as an example of what the UK may look like away from the Brussels-based bloc. Brexit supporters point to the high standard of living enjoyed by Scandinavian country’s population.

On the other hand, Europhiles claim Norway is still subject to huge amounts of Brussels legislation but has no influence over what is decided by EU bureaucrats - unlike the UK. So why do regular opinion polls show Norwegians vastly opposed to becoming the 29th EU member state?

In a comment piece for Express.co.uk, Mimmi Kvisvik - president of the Norwegian Union of Social Educators and Social Workers - has today explained why her countrymen are so against entering a political union through Brussels.escribing how Norway has insisted on staying outside the EU for more than a decade, Ms Kvisvik writes: “Norwegians voted ‘no’ to the EU in a heated referendum in 1994 – and we are not regretting it. Quite the opposite.”

She dismisses claims Norway is still dictated to by Brussels in exchange for accessing the EU’s so-called single market, arguing her country’s position in the European Economic Area means less than a tenth of Norway’s laws come from Brussels. And the country still has the “sovereign right to refuse” new EU rules.

Norwegians voted ‘no’ to the EU in a heated referendum in 1994 – and we are not regretting it. Quite the opposite Ms Kvisvik describes booming economic growth and foreign investment in Norway over the last ten years.

She argues Norway also has “a large number of tools at our disposal not available to EU members” in dealing with problems of uncontrolled immigration as a result of the EU’s freedom of movement rules, which the country subscribes too.

Pro-EU campaigners in Britain have often claimed the UK would be left ‘isolated’ away from the EU and would not enjoy the benefits of international co-operation. But Ms Kvisvik adds: “Norway's decision not to join the EU has not changed Norway’s internationalist perspective. “We are a part of Europe, and the world.”