Partnering the European Union

A number of alternative arrangements allowing partaking in the European integration in the absence of EU membership has emerged in the past. The European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement ensures that Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein take part in the EU Single Market. They also participate in the Schengen cooperation. Switzerland is deeply embedded in the EU through bilateral treaties, and Turkey is a member of the EU’s customs union. What are the opportunities and challenges of the so-called Norwegian model? And what are the implications of the existing arrangements to the UK’s desire to establish a new kind of partnership with the EU?

 

Speaker: 

Elsbeth Sande Tronstad, State Secretary, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway

 

Comments: Juhana Aunesluoma, Research Director, Network for European Studies, University of Helsinki

 

Chair: Teija Tiilikainen, Director, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs