The war in Ukraine should lead to a new debate on Norwegian EU membership, defense expert Karsten Friis says. “Extremely unwise,” EU membership opponent and Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (SP) believes.
“If you want a NATO debate, you should also have an EU debate in Norway,” Karsten Friis, a senior researcher at NUPI, said.
The Ukraine war has led to a debate about Norwegian membership in NATO, and the Red Party (Rødt) and the Socialist Left Party (SV) are the only parties that oppose Norway’s NATO membership. Friis believes that membership in the EU must also be debated again.
Friis told Dagbladet that the EU is important when it comes to other forms of warfare, such as cyber-attacks.
Given the threat situation in the context of hacking, acquisitions, espionage, and technology, the EU is on its way to becoming an equally important security policy community as NATO, Friis stated.
Vedum: Extremely unwise
Minister of Finance, EU opponent, and SP leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum opposes the notion.
“The situation now is not an argument for shifting more power from local democracy in Norway to bureaucrats in Brussels… I think that would be extremely unwise,” Vedum said.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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