In Norway, EU pros and cons (the cons still win)
Jens Stoltenberg, the recently installed leftist prime minister of Norway, believes that his country should join the European Union. So do some of his rivals on the right. Even the often euroskeptical populists today say they are neutral. So why is this increasingly wealthy North European nation remaining outside the fold at a time of broadening European integration? "Our situation in Norway is somewhat similar to that of Sweden and Britain in relation to the euro," Stoltenberg said Wednesday in an interview at his office overlooking central Oslo. "It is a matter that's yet to be settled."
Stoltenberg, 46, whose Labor Party won elections last month after four years in opposition, moved back into his office just last week. A tall man with a ready smile and a gentle manner, Stoltenberg served briefly as prime minister in 2000-2001 and has also held the business, energy and finance portfolios. For one thing, he said, Norway "would not be able to apply" to join the EU "with the government we have today." Indeed, his coalition partners, the Socialist Left and the Center Party, oppose Norwegian membership. But so do most Norwegians. While public opinion on EU membership has swelled and ebbed in this country of 4.5 million people since Norwegians last voted against it over a decade ago, negative feeling increased sharply this summer when French and Dutch voters rejected the European constitution. At present, 54 percent of Norwegians oppose membership, according to a poll published Monday in the newspaper Aftenposten. Their opinion, analysts say, is intimately linked to the broad feeling here that oil-rich, high-growth Norway does not need an economically stumbling European club. Projections show gross domestic product in Norway growing almost 4 percent this year, up slightly from 3.5 percent in 2004, compared with about 1 percent in the euro zone in both years.
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