“Let’s leave the EU and join the EEA or EFTA – Norway and Switzerland are doing fine without EU membership!” It’s a perennial argument of a surprisingly large number of anti-EU types, and I’ve been meaning to do a proper post on it for (literally) years. It is, needless to say, a nonsense argument based on a fundamental misunderstanding of Norwegian\/Swiss relations with the EU.<\/p>\n
Norway has oil. Switzerland\u2019s a tax haven. Both have far, far smaller populations than the UK, accounting for their far higher GDPs per capita (and hence relative prosperity). They are not comparable with Britain.<\/p>\n
Even if they were \u2013 both also have to pay in to the EU budget<\/a> proportionate to their economies. Norway currently pays c.340 million euros per annum<\/a>. This is more than many EU member states – especially when you consider the fact that actual members get money back, reducing their net contributions.<\/p>\n In fact, judging from this chart of net contributions<\/a>, Norway would – if included in the chart – be about the 10th highest contributor to the EU budget, despite not being a member.<\/p>\n Rough maths tells us that, all things being equal, as the UK’s GDP is approximately 5.7 times that of Norway’s, the UK would still need to contribute around 2 billion euros a year to the EU budget if part of the EEA\/EFTA. While having no say in what EU laws and regulations we’d still have to follow.<\/p>\n Because both Norway and Switzerland also – without having any say in their formulation – have to abide by 80-90% of EU rules and regulations in order to be part of the Common Market. <\/p>\n Because you know what you need for a Common Market to function? Common rules and regulations.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the whole reason *why* the EEC has been shifting down the path towards elements of political union over the last five decades \u2013 you need a certain amount of political harmonisation to enable functional, stable economic harmonisation. The lack of greater political cohesion (especially the lack of a common fiscal policy) is one of the major contributing factors to the current eurozone crisis, FFS.<\/p>\n Also worth remembering \u2013 these \u201cwe\u2019d be better off in EFTA\/the EEA\u201d arguments used to have a third \u201clook how well so-and-so\u2019s doing\u201d country included: Iceland.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t hear much about how well Iceland\u2019s doing in the EEA any more, do we?<\/p>\n You see – it’s all very well saying “let’s leave the EU”. But if you’re advocating ditching the status quo you’d better have a pretty bloody well thought-through alternative plan.<\/p>\n The vast, vast majority of EU withdrawalists, however, seem simply not to have done their research.<\/p>\n (This originally posted as a comment here<\/a>, and now slightly modified with additional links)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Let’s leave the EU and join the EEA or EFTA – Norway and Switzerland are doing fine without EU membership!” It’s a perennial argument of a surprisingly large number of anti-EU types, and I’ve been meaning to do a proper … Continue reading