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EU exposed: How bloc assumed Norway would join ‘two to five years after it voted no’ | World

The Norwegian arguments for staying out of the bloc echo many Brexiteers’ arguments for the UK leaving the EU: sovereignty, bureaucracy, excessive regulations, its undemocratic structure, fishing rights and more. During the three and a half years between the UK’s Leave vote in 2016 and the country finally leaving the EU on January 31 this year, both UK Reaminers and EU politicians have pushed to keep the UK in the bloc despite the vote. Some have pushed for a second referendum ‒ a so-called People’s Vote ‒ such as the former European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt.

Related articles EU fishing disaster: How Faroe Islands split from Denmark over fishing Brexit betrayal: Norway treated with ‘goodwill’ as UK faces pushback Others, like the Liberal Democrats, have even gone so far as to suggest revoking Article 50 outright.

Either way, many in the EU simply wished for the UK to change its mind and, in their view, correct its wrong decision.

However, despite the numerous hurdles, the UK has left the EU and, as Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said, it is “never going back”.

Similarly, the EEC thought Norway’s 1972 decision to stay out of the bloc was the wrong decision that they would later correct.

READ MORE: UK fishing fury: How bust-up sparked fears of WAR at sea

The EEC assumed Norway would eventually join the bloc, but it didn't (Image: GETTY)

Anti-Brexit protest (Image: GETTY) Documents unearthed at the National Archives by Express.co.uk, revealed that the consensus was that Norway would change its mind in two years' time at the earliest, with most people believing it would take around five years.

Of course, Norway never changed its mind.

It remained out of the EEC and after the formation of the EU had another referendum in 1994 on membership.

Again, the Norwegian public rejected the offer, 52 percent to 48 percent, in a result that eerily mirrors the 2016 Brexit vote.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg (Image: GETTY) Related articles French fisherman’s threat to HANG British naval officer Coronavirus: How pandemic could end hopes of US-UK trade deal for good In 1972, one diplomat wrote to the UK Foreign Office: “In brief, the pattern of the sort of agreement that is likely to emerge from the negotiations is, I imagine, fairly clear already and the problem is essentially whether we should approach the negotiations in a spirit of goodwill.

“My own feeling is that we should and it would be more helpful to the pro-marketeers and more damaging for the anti-marketeers if we could prove that, with the best will in the world, a trade agreement cannot, in the nature of things, afford to Norway the same benefits as full membership of the EEC.

“Only then may the anti-marketeers come round with time to recognise the error of their ways, and when that time comes, the closer Norway is to Europe the easier will be the transition to full membership.

“On the other hand, we start the negotiations in a general spirit of ‘let them stew’, I am not at all sure that, far from forcing these stubborn people to change their minds quickly, we may not rather make them dig in their toes, threaten to leave and eventually leave NATO and look for other markets for their goods in eastern Europe.

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Boris Johnson has promised to negotiate a new trade deal by the end of the year (Image: GETTY) “In brief, I think that an unforthcoming attitude will retard rather than advance the date when Norwegians may change their ‘no’ to a ‘yes’.

“For such a change to come about, the lowest estimate is still two years, most people say five.”

Indeed this letter highlights the patronising way in which officials were convinced Norwegians would “see the error of their ways” and change their mind.

However, in 2020, Norway is perfectly happy outside the EU and is enjoying economic success and a high quality of life.

The Scandinavian country is ranked fourth in the world in terms of GDP per capita and is tenth in the world in terms of the Quality of Life Index.

What’s more, according to 2018 polling data from Sentio, Norwegins are even more determined not to join the EU than before.

Only around 22 percent said they want to join the EU, with 67 percent saying they wanted to stay out.

In this way, not only did Norway not change its mind within two to five years, it never changed its mind and is unlikely to do so in the future.

Nigel Farage insisted the UK will "not be coming back" (Image: GETTY) Trending Several EU politicians have hinted that the UK will regret its decision to leave, with former European Council President Donald Tusk admitting that is his “personal dream” for Britons to change their minds.

But if Norway is anything to go by, this is unlikely to happen.

On his last day in the European Parliament, Mr Farage put it well when he said: “This is it, the final chapter, the end of the road, a 47-year experiment that the British frankly have never been happy with.

“What happens at 11pm this Friday, January 31, 2002, marks the point of no return, once we’ve left we are never coming back and the rest, frankly, is detail.”