Norway’s Bad Deal

Norway’s EEA agreement is held up as an example Britain should follow — but it has led to more than two decades of neoliberal policies.

Illustration by Raúl Soria

The Brexit process staggers on, and, from the outside, it looks no less of a mess than it does from the United Kingdom. But while UK newspapers are full of stories about European schadenfreude over Britain’s difficulties, watching the debate from Norway has been a rather different experience. This is because Norway’s own relationship with Europe has frequently been invoked as a model for Britain to follow, in contributions that have rarely taken account of how Norway’s deal is seen in the country itself, let alone what the Norwegian left thinks of it.

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