Nordic leaders at a meeting in Bergen in 2017. Photo: Marit Hommedal/TT
A significant proportion of Swedes and Danes would prefer to be part of a 'Nordic union' between Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland rather than the European Union, a new poll shows.
The Sentio poll for left-wing Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen asked around 1,000 people in each of the three countries which kind of partnership they would prefer: the present situation with Sweden and Denmark in the EU (and Norway in the European Economic Area), or a new Nordic union with joint policy in many areas.
47 percent of Swedes and 45 percent of Danes polled said they would prefer the Nordic option, while only 32 percent of the former and 36 percent of the latter said they preferred the EU (the rest said they didn’t know).
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Those polled in Norway were given a third option, owing to their unique situation among the three countries as non EU members.
More than half (52 percent) said they would continue with the country’s current level of partnership with the EU, while 31 percent opted for a Nordic union, and only 10 percent chose EU membership.
Despite their countries being part of the hypothetical Nordic union model used in the survey, Finns and Icelanders were not polled.
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tresslessone on July 27th, 2018 at 09:18 UTC »
I don’t see why you can’t have a Nordic union as well as the EU. Look at BeNeLux.
GinAlleyMan on July 27th, 2018 at 08:37 UTC »
The two aren't opposed to each other. We could form a nordic federal state that exists within the EU. Such a state would also have more clout within the EU, having about 27 million people and a large economy. Practically, it would presumably be easier for Norway to join the EU than for all others to leave it.
Econ_Orc on July 27th, 2018 at 07:33 UTC »
They pursued the matter after World War 2, but NATO, Swedish neutrality and Finnish reluctance to annoy Russia hampered the military alliance part.
Sweden was stronger economically than the others with a larger welfare state. So how to combine the non oil Norway and Denmark transitioning from agriculture to industrial with the more high tech Sweden was not an easy thing to do. Politically they were more a like. Of course with Denmark still being a bit more Conservative. That will probably never change