Brexit: Norway cool on UK idea to come back to EFTA

It is not obvious that the UK can enter EFTA, the club that brings together Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

According to Elizabeth Vik Aspaker, Minister for European Affairs of the Scandinavian country, in an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, UK could be a problem for the country: "It is not certain that men may bring to this organization a great country is a good idea, it would change the balance , which is not necessarily in the interests of Norway. "

In particular to make puzzled Oslo's view is that the entry of the United Kingdom in partnership likely lead to a long phase of new renegotiation of trade agreements. Technically any Norwegian veto would be enough to blow up the possible accession of the United Kingdom to EFTA, given that the members must approve it by a unanimous vote.

Yet somehow the station list of the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, will have to find the way to stay in the single market, which, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has calculated, worths 70 billion pounds. The path to the European Union output, once again, promises longer and more convoluted than it was in the mind of its promoters. The Norwegian prime minister on the eve of the referendum had feared: "Do not let the EU, hate this choice."

Britain was a founding member of EFTA in 1960, a free trade organization That was an appendage to the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union. In 1973, Britain joined the EEC.