And now something completely different
Long time since I published something for the benefit of my English-language readers. Sorry! But life is quite busy with a lot of shuffling EU Directives into the Norwegian state apparatus and trying to guess how life will be under a new government composed of nationalists, socialists and a combination of the two.. At the same time my party its studying closely its fundamental values and how to redirect (?) its ideology in order to win back the votes so miserably lost in September. But we're up and kicking and planning a dreadful comeback.
It has been discussed whether EU would not be a good tool for blasting away at the red-greens, deeply split as they are between no-to-everything-called-EU fanatics and equally staunch pro-Europeans (you find many of them in the Labour party). Playing out the E-word might cause a deep split from the outset. Sometimes the EU debate is kept rolling. For instance, someone wrote that gleefully that Germany has 81,7 % of its legislation made in Brussels while the Germans only are able to decide on 18,3 % of their national legislation. Compare this to "free" Norway: We may decide on 82,3 % of our own laws while only 17,4 % are imported from Brussels. So we are a free and independent nation indeed! The EU ambassador to Norway came out of the closet to comment on this, prudently reminding the Nerdwegians that most of EU's decisions are made unanimously based on previously agreed compromises, giving member states like Germany a full opportunity to affect any EU legislation before it is "imposed" on their country. He also reminded that the majority of Directives affecting the Internal Market are also implemented in Norway. As a diplomat he left it to the readers to understand that the same Directives are implemented in Norway - without any significant political influence on their content, effects on Norwegian politics and economy or anything else. This is real "fax democracy" and we are proud of it!
The situation will not improve with the Open Method of Co-ordination which will give more power to intra-ministerial discussion ahead of the formal legislation process. Norway has, through the EEA agreement, a formal right to consultations with the Commission. Less power to the Commission equals more power to the Council equals no power to Norway. OMC is a great idea for a union of 25 Member States, because it is possible to agree on common values before a legislation process is launched. But it brings us back to the days of pre-1905 where Norway's destiny was decided in Stockholm. But at least in those days there was a Norwegian prime minister there - actually one in Oslo (Kristiania) and one in Sweden. Today Norwegian ministers are mostly met by lower rank civil servants in the Commission, noone is particularly interested in Norwegian concerns and legislation is meekly accepted. Norwegian independence??
It has been discussed whether EU would not be a good tool for blasting away at the red-greens, deeply split as they are between no-to-everything-called-EU fanatics and equally staunch pro-Europeans (you find many of them in the Labour party). Playing out the E-word might cause a deep split from the outset. Sometimes the EU debate is kept rolling. For instance, someone wrote that gleefully that Germany has 81,7 % of its legislation made in Brussels while the Germans only are able to decide on 18,3 % of their national legislation. Compare this to "free" Norway: We may decide on 82,3 % of our own laws while only 17,4 % are imported from Brussels. So we are a free and independent nation indeed! The EU ambassador to Norway came out of the closet to comment on this, prudently reminding the Nerdwegians that most of EU's decisions are made unanimously based on previously agreed compromises, giving member states like Germany a full opportunity to affect any EU legislation before it is "imposed" on their country. He also reminded that the majority of Directives affecting the Internal Market are also implemented in Norway. As a diplomat he left it to the readers to understand that the same Directives are implemented in Norway - without any significant political influence on their content, effects on Norwegian politics and economy or anything else. This is real "fax democracy" and we are proud of it!
The situation will not improve with the Open Method of Co-ordination which will give more power to intra-ministerial discussion ahead of the formal legislation process. Norway has, through the EEA agreement, a formal right to consultations with the Commission. Less power to the Commission equals more power to the Council equals no power to Norway. OMC is a great idea for a union of 25 Member States, because it is possible to agree on common values before a legislation process is launched. But it brings us back to the days of pre-1905 where Norway's destiny was decided in Stockholm. But at least in those days there was a Norwegian prime minister there - actually one in Oslo (Kristiania) and one in Sweden. Today Norwegian ministers are mostly met by lower rank civil servants in the Commission, noone is particularly interested in Norwegian concerns and legislation is meekly accepted. Norwegian independence??
posted by Herodotus at 10:36
0 Comments:
Legg inn en kommentar
<< Home