Triangular Norway-UK-EU relations post-Brexit

John Erik Fossum and Marianne Riddervold, ARENA, University of Oslo The purpose of this paper is to examine the remaking of relations between European states and the UK after Brexit, by exploring this through the lens of Norway’s relationship to the EU and the UK. Norway is an interesting case to explore when wanting to understand evolving post-Brexit European cooperation structures due to its strong relations both to the EU and the UK: Norway is very closely linked to the UK both in terms of trade and security and it has the tightest EU-affiliation of any non-member. At the same time, the UK looks to Norway in its search for stronger ties with the EU, while the EU has an increasingly holistic view on its engagement with European non-member states. Norway’s EU affiliation was also extensively debated in the UK both before and after Brexit. Studying UK-Norway-EU dynamics, especially post-Brexit, will hence provide new insights into how the EU relates to non-EU European states, and better understanding of the broader cooperation structures that are emerging in Europe, with the EU at its centre. The paper starts by providing an overview of Norway-UK and Norway EU relations pre-Brexit, including outlining the distinctive features of Norway’s EU affiliation, as the relevant benchmark for assessing changes wrought by Brexit in the EU-UK relationship. The next section accordingly outlines the agreements and arrangements that were formed between the EU and UK and Norway and UK, since the EFTA-EEA countries’ agreement with the UK echoed the UK’s Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU. The last section examines post-Brexit cooperation and conflict between the EU, UK and Norway on the politically most salient post-Brexit issues with particular emphasis on trade (including oil and gas), fisheries, and security and defence. The paper demonstrates the need for depicting UK’s neighbourhood relations post-Brexit by means of the model of triangular dynamics between the UK, EU and other non-EU European states.