EEA, EU | Abid Raja:

Coffee latte youth from the big cities

Raja says that many Norwegian students may lose a unique opportunity for a well-funded study stay abroad if the Erasmus exchange program is dropped.

– The Center Party wants it to be only coffee latte youth from the big cities who go abroad to study. I know a lot of young people in the rural areas who want to take a semester abroad. SV and Sp are a direct threat to the agreements we have, and a direct threat to the students’ well-being, says Raja and refers to, among other things, the Erasmus scheme.

The Erasmus scheme ensures that Norwegian university students can study for two semesters free of charge at another university in Europe. The scheme also allocates students 400 euros in monthly support on top of the regular student support from Lånekassen.

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– It can be very expensive to travel, live or study in Europe

Raja believes that exchange studies in Europe will be extremely expensive, and will be reserved for only the few, if the generous Erasmus scheme is negotiated away.

– It can be very expensive to travel, live or study in Europe, says Raja.

Gjelsvik says he can guarantee that Sp will never enter into an agreement with the EU that does not include the freedoms Raja aims for.

– It is in the mutual interest of both Norway and the EU to have good agreements in areas such as education, research and health care. There is nothing to indicate that the EU or Norway does not want to continue that cooperation, says Gjelsvik.

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– Switzerland, which is neither an EEA nor an EU member, is included in the co-operation on the European Health Card. In the case of Erasmus, a number of countries outside the EU and the EEA, such as Turkey, are included in that cooperation. There are different solutions for different countries. The fact that the UK is not part of Erasmus is an independent choice the British have made, he says.

Freedom of passport in Europe

Raja says that passport-free travel through Europe is a good thing that most people take for granted. He thinks no Norwegian misses the time when one had to present a passport at every border crossing in Europe.

– When traveling through Europe, you can walk in the fast EU passport queue at the airport. In the “All Passports” queue next door are Americans and Asians. That queue is long and there are few who serve it. I doubt that people in the districts want to have a daily life where you need a passport to travel to Denmark, Sweden and the rest of Europe, says Raja.

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– I think most Norwegians feel safe by having the blue Helfo card in their pocket when traveling in Europe. It ensures Norwegian citizens the right to cover necessary health care in another EEA country on the same terms as the country of residence’s own citizens, says Raja.

– And is it not nice that you do not get a 25,000 kroner mobile bill when you come home from holiday, as it was before, he says and refers to the expensive roaming costs on a European holiday before a fixed price was introduced throughout the EU.

Gjelsvik points out that passport freedom is regulated through Schengen cooperation.

– Switzerland is outside the EEA and the EU. Nevertheless, many of us have traveled in and out of Switzerland many times without any problems, he says.

– What is important, however, is that we have a national opportunity for border control. In recent years, we have had strengthened border controls into Norway (the influx of refugees and the pandemic, editor’s note), which is actually in conflict with Schengen, but which has been accepted by the EU. Then we had to ask the EU for a law every time, says Gjelsvik.

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Raja: – All this will be lost

Raja says that the EEA agreement also ensures Norwegians cheaper goods and better consumer rights, strengthened cultural exchange through subsidy schemes, as well as pension and social security rights for working Norwegians in EU countries.

Freedom of movement and work through the EEA agreement gives Norwegians the freedom to travel and settle anywhere in Europe without having to drive with a visa or work permit. Raja says that the Liberal Party is a guarantor of all these freedoms.

– All these benefits are thanks to the EEA agreement. Sp and SV say they want to renegotiate the EEA agreement. Britain would do the same. They had to terminate the agreement and are left with a far worse agreement than the agreement Norway has now, says Raja.

– The EEA agreement is far better than the UK agreement. No one must believe that we will get a better deal than what the United Kingdom was able to negotiate. They are much stronger and bigger than us, he says.

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– Which of the mentioned freedoms do you think will be lost in the event of an EEA withdrawal, Raja?

– I think all this will be lost if we terminate the EEA agreement. When we made the old agreement, it was the many EFTA countries that negotiated the agreement. Now there are only a few countries left such as Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland. These are not important and important countries for the EU. It was a different force at the time. We reached an agreement that was very favorable for Norway, he says.

– A bad and temporary agreement

Fylkesnes believes that there has previously been broad political agreement that the EEA agreement is basically a bad and temporary agreement.

– We have said that we want to get a better deal. Ten years ago, according to the Conservatives and the Labor Party, the EEA agreement was the worst agreement one could have. Then they completely agreed on that. The EEA agreement was never an agreement that was intended to last. The idea was that it was a transitional agreement because you were to join the EU, says Fylkesnes.

– In retrospect, no country that has entered into trade agreements with the EU has imitated the EEA agreement. It is a very powerful signal in itself. We have looked at other trade agreements that the EU has entered into, such as with South Korea, where you get the same benefits, but without the democratic deficit. That is where we want to be, says the SV deputy leader.

– No reason for anything to be lost

Fylkesnes does not believe that new negotiations with the EU will lead to any loss of the freedoms that Raja is aiming for.

– I see no reason for it to do so. Then I would like to refer to Nordic co-operation, which is much older and even more integrated than European co-operation (Nordic Council of Ministers and Nordic Council, editor’s note). There we have agreed on freedoms between the countries completely independent of the EEA. Nordic co-operation has been used as a model by the EU. Those who believe that freedoms flow from Brussels have not understood what we are doing in Nordic co-operation. But it is probably knowledge that has passed Raja’s house, he says.