Brexit Spurs Stubborn Nordics to Break Free From Crumbling EU

The UK's departure from the EU seems to have whetted EU skeptics' appetite. A group of politicians, representing all five Nordic nations, have written an opinion peace stating it was high time for Scandinavia to "unhook" itself from the pan-European structure that is "singing its swansong."

In their opinion piece published in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the Nordic EU-skeptics wrote that Brussels has accumulated so much power that it was actually doubtful whether the member states were still independent.

"Like Washington, Brussels has developed into a Mecca for heavy lobbyists, partly due to significantly lower transparency and partly because of the competitive advantage over smaller actors (which cannot afford to pay for trips, lawyers and PR efforts, in order to influence the process of the decision-making)," the Nordic EU skeptics wrote, calling the EU an "unholy alliance" between the political cream and the labor market's bigwigs.

The Nordic EU skeptics find it "hardly surprising" that Europe's economies have been steadily losing momentum and relative weight, with the impact being heaviest on the countries that supported the EU most.

As national protests towards the EU are mounting, political turmoil across the EU is increasing, making the former "peace guarantor" a source of conflict. Furthermore, the Nordic EU skeptics also lashed out against the EU's abysmal level of public debate, which is marked by conformism, self-glorification and conflict with reality.

"Today, there seems to be no limit of shame in how EU critics are treated. We now hear EU critical voters being referred to as plain 'stupid,' 'archaic,' 'isolationist' or 'duped by dark forces,' whoever they might be," the Nordic EU skeptics wrote, venturing that the EU was unable to resist the temptations following huge power vested in the top of a pyramid.

According to the Nordic EU skeptics, the EU project had its "golden age" in the 1990s. Subsequently, the EU amassed the critical level of power needed to develop into an expansion machine. Today, the system is rigged in favor of "desk people," that is bureaucrats, lobbyists, obedient academic and grant-hunting experts, which actually contradicts all social practices.

Lastly, the Nordic EU critics ventured that the EU actually did not promote diversity, but rather contributes to uniformity through its internationalist attempts to squeeze everything under a single "bureaucrat umbrella."

In conclusion, the authors found that the Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland should release their political and administrative ties to the EU. According to them, Brexit gave the Nordic nations a golden opportunity to develop their own custom-made cooperation agreements with key partners, including the UK. It would be of course wise to maintain string ties with the rest of the EU member states, but without the political straightjacket. "Nothing would do more to ensure both prosperity and peace," the authors wrote.

The article was signed by Jan Erik Gustafsson, chairman of the Swedish No to the EU foundation, Lave Broch, board member of the European Alliance of EU-critical Movements (TEAM), Helle Hagenau, board member of the Norwegian No to the EU, Ulla Klötzer, former chairman of the people's movement options for the EU and TEAM board member, and Erna Bjarnadóttir, board member of the Icelandic No to the EU and chief economist of the Icelandic Peasants Association.

Remarkably, almost 83 percent of the readers agreed with the article in a subsequent poll by Aftonbladet.

At present, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are EU member states, whereas Norway and Iceland enjoy a form of "semi-membership" through the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement. While the latter two have more freedom in a relative sense, control of their internal regulations is limited.

 

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