Norway in Depth - Norway - page 445

After an abortive attempt to form a Nordic defense alliance, Norway and
Denmark joined NATO in 1949. The Communist Party tried to secure recog-
nition in Norway but failed.
By the 1960s oil prospecting in the North Sea had yielded rich finds, which
led to a profound restructuring of Norwegian trade and industry. In 1972 Nor-
way voted not to enter the Common Market, following a bitter political dispute.
Norway had a non-Socialist government from 1981 to 1986. In 1986 Labor
Party leader Gro Harlem Brundtland headed a minority government as Nor-
way's first female prime minister. She introduced 7 women into her 18-member
cabinet. Soon, however, tumbling oil prices and subsequent unemployment led
to a recession. The Labour government lost the 1989 elections. A center-right
coalition assumed control of government. In November 1990 Brundtland
returned to office as prime minister, this time with 9 women in her 19-member
cabinet. In 1991 Olav V died and was succeeded by his son, Harald V.
Today the Norwegian government faces many of the same problems that con-
front other nations: violent crime, drugs, immigration control, unemployment,
acid rain, and pollution. Concern about acid rain and pollution, much of which
comes from Great Britain, was so great that riots erupted when Margaret
Thatcher visited Norway in 1987.
Although some Conservatives objected, Norway applied for membership in
the European Union (E.U.) in 1993. The country also began to assert itself more
on the international scene. Thorvald Stoltenberg, the minister of foreign affairs,
was named peace negotiator for ravaged Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, in clandestine
meetings held outside Oslo, helped effect a rapprochement between the PLO and
Israel. All these history-making events were eclipsed by the XVII Olympic Win-
ter Games, held in Lillehammer in February 1994. In November 1994 Norwe-
gians rejected a nonbinding referendum on E.U. membership. Following that,
everyone waited for the Norwegian parliament to vote on whether the country
would join. The parliament deliberately avoided the issue and did not vote on the
matter. The referendum, though nonbinding, remains in force, and Norway is
still not a member of the E.U. But that does not mean the country has no eco-
nomic links with the rest of Europe. In 1994 Norway reinforced its commit-
ments to membership in the EEAA (European Economic Area Agreement), an
association initiated in 1992 to ensure its access to the E.U.'s single market. It
includes cooperation in a variety of cultural and economic areas.
In 1995 Norway won the Eurovision Song Contest for best songs evocative of
a country, repeating its sweep of a decade earlier and ensuring that the event
would be held there in 1996. As the host country, Norway captured second place.
By 1998 Norway was having its share of troubles, as oil prices plunged to
their lowest levels in a decade. Turmoil in financial markets knocked the krone
lower and prompted the central bank to double interest rates to 10%. The pop-
ular prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, who took over the office in 1997,
stunned the country by taking a temporary leave from office. His doctors said
he was having a “depressive reaction” to too much work and stress. In late 1998
Bondevik came back to his job—and is now running the country.
Today Norway continues pushing forward with major engineering projects.
The country is connecting its sparsely inhabited outcroppings and linking its inte-
rior fjord-side villages in an effort to stem the flow of people to larger towns and
villages. At Hitra, a largely barren island off the west coast, a new 5.5km (3 1 ⁄ 2 -mile)
tunnel (the world's deepest and second-longest) has been built at a cost of $41 mil-
lion. It links mainland Norway to a hamlet with some 4,100 residents. On the