Didn't know Norway has GDPR as they are not in the EU but apparently they have.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=34dfb199-c9ab...
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=34dfb199-c9ab...
Your image of Norway may be a bit off..
It's true though that Norway is overly protective of its food industry. And arguably for good reason since it wouldn't be competitive at all if integrated with the rest of Europe.
As for seals, I've eaten seal, I think, but it's hardly been a dietary mainstay... We used to have whale regularly when I was a kid, mostly because back then it was much cheaper than beef (and much tougher, and oily... it was not great meat - it's expensive now due to low supply and nostalgia).
The only place in Norway Polar bears live is Svalbard, far North of the mainland. Most Norwegians have never visited because it's far away (a 1h 40m flight North from Tromsø in Northern Norway - similar to how long it takes to fly South to Central Europe from Oslo) and way too cold and miserable.
Seal is something few people eat very often. A huge proportion of the population will never ever have tasted it. Like whale, it's uncommon these days.
It seems to be a pretty good partnership so far, and I did not read anything about a will from either side to change anything about it yet, but I might be misinformed
It's not well known, but all EU countries are required to adopt the Euro (except for Denmark who have a real opt-out). The countries who haven't are using a loophole to bypass the requirement of Euro adoption, by purposefully failing to fulfill some standards.
EDIT: That's not to say Norway doesn't still do whaling, but quotas are only for minke whales. Of a quota of 1278 for 2019, 429 where caught. But pilot whales explicitly still do not meet the conditions required (size of population etc.) for Norway to allow hunt.
It's still largely politically untenable in Norway to oppose agriculture subsidies.
Today the main reminder is that Norwegian school children still tend to learn the epic poem "Terje Vigen" by Ibsen, about a man who braves the blockade to feed his family and is captured - coupled with food security being a talking point in other subjects. It's not pushed very hard, and many probably at this point don't even make the connection.
The main modern justification is WW2, where the subject of food security gets reinforced with stories of bread made with bark etc., and post-war rationing.
Couple that with the constant fear of the Soviet Union (to the point that when growing up, we had regular air raid siren tests - today they're so rare the newspapers write articles to explain what they are) only reducing to unease about Russia, and food security is still a political topic.
Personally I don't mind the sirens, they tend to work pretty reliably and every time the mobile phone network was used to indicate something was up for some reason I totally missed the message, never received it or received it more than a day later.
E.g. Switzerland can still have customs and charge customs charges on some items.
We have the option to reject certain EU-rules, and can negotiate special exemptions into our agreement. Norway has some exemptions in fishing rights that are central to our agreement. Under the previous government we also rejected the EU Postal Directive, though the current government has since accepted it.
> The EEA Agreement does not cover the following EU policies: common agriculture and fisheries policies (although the EEA Agreement contains provisions on trade in agricultural and fish products); customs union; common trade policy; common foreign and security policy; justice and home affairs (the EEA EFTA States are however part of the Schengen area); direct and indirect taxation; or economic and monetary union.
See section 5, "What is not covered by the EEA Agreement?": https://www.efta.int/eea/eea-agreement/eea-basic-features
Except countries in the Nordic Passport Union: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Passport_Union You need zero documents to travel between these (well, you need a ticket if you fly or travel by train or a bus).
I flew to Norway from Stockholm before 2015, and I was very surprised to just pass directly to the gate (and same on the way back).
This is incorrect. And the presence or absence of these checks is not a EU/EEA matter. The passport free movement is a matter of the Schengen agreement. This is why the UK had passport checks with most of continental Europe back when they were EU members (but not Schengen members).
Norway is a Schengen member, and an EEA member, but not an EU member.
This Venn diagram might help (note that it hasn't been updated for Brexit): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Supranat...
Ah, even Croatia is outside the EU on the diagram - so it's way worse than that. That being said: Croatia is outside Schengen as well.
You are right about Schengen.
But I had to show my passport a couple of years ago on a flight from Vienna to Norway, so I thought they weren't part of Schengen. I'm not sure why, but I believe the reason must have been the "temporary border controls" introduced in 2015.
The passport checks have nothing to do with the EU, it's the Schengen treaty[0] that allows omitting that part. Norway is a part of the treaty, so is Iceland for example. Some EU countries still don't meet the criteria to join, e.g. Romania, Bulgaria. Ireland and the UK are/were outside (voluntarily) of the treaty as well - which is one of the weirdest parts of the Brexit with the UK actually checking its own borders more than most of the rest of the EU.
For example traveling from Poland to Norway by car (and ferry Tallinn - Helsinki) requires zero passport/id card checks. (id cards are a valid traveling document within the EU and Schengen)