journal of european integration history revue d'histoire de l ...

78
Hans-Otto Frøland
Defence of sovereignty and fear of losing national identity were still main issues in
the debates on Community membership, and the legislature did not introduce a
constitutional warrant for a limited cession of sovereignty until 1962. However, the
public debates concerning possible membership were still dominated by utilitarian
considerations more than by idealistic visions of the nation-State. Arguments about
national sovereignty were secondary to socio-political and socio-economic interests,
in particular the defence of the primary economy.
This paper aims to explain the hard-nosed utilitarian considerations that made
the basis of the national choice. It argues that Norway remained outside the EC because
membership threatened the domestic political economy that had been sustained
ever since 1948. By political economy is meant the set of agreements across
all sectors of the national economy that had been reached co-operatively by representatives
of both the economic interest groups and the State, which involved intense
State intervention and which was believed to constitute the keystone of the
country's socio-political stability.
The first section puts this thesis in the historiographical context of Norway's European
integration policy. The second section outlines in more detail the foundations
of Norway's political economy as well as its character until the Treaties of
Rome were established. The constraints the political economy imposed on the form
of attachment to the Community are illustrated in the third section, which provides
evidence of how the Norwegian polity perceived the challenge of the Community.
The fourth section outlines the bargaining policy developed when applying for access
negotiations with the Community. The paper concludes that European Free
Trade Association (EFTA) membership rather than EC membership became the
desirable policy option, as it would allow keeping the country's political economy
unaltered. When the perception of the Community as a challenge diminished in urgency,
being peripheral vis-à-vis the Six was not regarded to be detrimental. In the
closing section, I therefore explain why the Labour government defended the
accession treaty before the 1972 referendum on Community membership.
I. Norway and European Integration: the Patterns of Historiography
Within the body of published works covering the history of Norway's relation to the
Western European integration process between 1948 and 1973 three non-excluding
perspectives may be identified. These can be labelled, in short, geopolitical challenges,
domestic constraints and economic modernisation.
An academic interest in Norway's relationship to European integration did not
emerge until after the first application for negotiations on EEC membership in
1962. Those interested in the topic were scholars and advisors close to the Labour
government. 3 Their point of departure was the study of the Cold War and its deriving
tensions, and within this framework they analysed Norway's European positioning
as part of the country's foreign and security policies. 4 As a small State,