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EU Threatens Norway with Sanctions

According to TV2’s report,  discontent over Norway is growing in European Union. There are many people in Brussels who are tired of Norway and believe that European cooperation is a smorgasbord where you can just pick what you want, says the Swedish European Parliament member Christofer Fjellner.

According to Fjellner, that is the summary of the EU evaluation report of Norway, coming later this spring. The report is a detailed review of how the EU views the EEA Agreement and the relationship with Norway.

In the draft report published by TV2, the EU strongly dislike that Norway rejects several directives from Brussels. The Norwegian government, for example, had announced that they would not implement the EU Postal Directive. In addition, the EU believes that Norway is obstructing the implementation of nearly 500 directives.

On top of the criticism list, the new tarrif regulation on imported cheese and meat. Norwegian government had decided to increase tariffs on cheese and meat from 2013, which caused strong reactions in the EU, an organization that avoid trade protectionism as primary principle.

– You will eat the cream of the cake, and throw the bottom. Norway only skims the cream, but refuses to deal with the reality. It is pure Norwegian egotism, says the Danish member of European Parliement, Bendt Bendtsen.

When Norway does not implement directives concerning the EU’s internal market, we cannot have a fair playing gorund. It’s a big problem, says Bendtsen.

Also more and more EU officials express their growing discontent over Norway.

Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, confirms that the EU looks at the possibility of sanctions within the EEA Agreement. The report opens EU – for the first time since the EEA Agreement entered into force in 1994 – to impose sanctions against Norway.

– This is the first time the EU seriously threatens to disclude Norway from certain parts of the internal market. I think Norwegians are aware of the importance of the internal market for them, says she.

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