Years of battling to realise dreams that fill the heart

Date: 22/02/1996

AMBASSADOR Eivinn Berg asks if, before the interview begins, he may take just another moment to finish drafting a memo.

“We are talking to Sweden,” he explains, without looking up and writing rapidly. “We are trying to work out a neighbourly arrangement.”

No, the ambassador is not Norway's envoy to Stockholm, but rather to Brussels. And the recipient of his memo will be his Swedish counterpart in the EU's capital, with whom he has been given the task of resolving a bilateral fishing dispute over catch limits in the North Sea.

The scene is just the kind that makes some Norwegians fear that long-standing allegiances with their Nordic neighbours are being eroded now that three of the region's countries are in the EU and two are outside. Now, they claim, when Oslo wants to settle an issue with Stockholm or Helsinki, its officials find themselves facing the European Commission.

Ambassador Berg, who fought long and hard to get Norway into the Union, does not deny that, but it does not worry him.

“It is only natural that a country inside the Union which is in a dispute with a country outside the Union tries to mobilise sympathy and support from its partners in the Union,” he says.

“We would have done the same. This fishing case is now formally a dispute between Norway and the Commission, but we will solve it bilaterally,” he says, adding that the dispute's high profile in Norway has nothing to do with the European dimension.

Berg knows better than almost anyone how Norwegians feel about the EU. As a member of Norway's negotiating team from 1969 to 1973, when Oslo considered EC membership for the first time, and his country's ambassador to Brussels for the past eight years, he has carried Europe's standard into two membership battles and has twice been disappointed when his compatriots voted No.

But far from giving up, Berg is now on his third campaign - to strike an accord between Norway (with Iceland in tow) and Schengen members.

For 40 years, Norway and Iceland have been joined to Denmark, Finland and Sweden in a passport union. If the latter three countries allow travellers from other Schengen nations to cross their borders without passport checks, Norway and Iceland must either erect a wall or adapt.

Berg is negotiating an agreement which would give both countries a seat at all Schengen meetings, right up to the executive committee, allowing them to influence decisions even though they would not have a vote.

If he can annex his country to the Schengen territory, Berg will have succeeded in helping Norway enjoy almost all the benefits of EU membership - except, of course, the right to help formulate EU policy.

Through the European Economic Area (EEA), Norwegian goods, services and capital move freely throughout the Union. With a Schengen arrangement, its citizens will travel unhampered by controls.

So, apart from EU farm and fisheries subsidies, what is missing?

When Norway applied for EU membership alongside the UK, Ireland and Denmark, it had two goals: securing its economic interests and ensuring its security. “We had good reasons to join the Community in 1972,” says Berg.

The second time around, economic interests were a smaller part of the equation, because the EEA had fulfilled many of those needs, but the political considerations were bigger. “We had a clear interest in participating actively in developing a better-coordinated Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).”

Although EU foreign policy has developed along lines compatible with Oslo's policies, and is likely to continue doing so, there is always the risk of a divergence, and if that happens Norway will have no direct say in changing its EU allies' approach.

Berg has tried to reduce that risk by establishing close contact with CFSP officials. Through a formal agreement, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein meet the EU's presidency at the beginning and end of each term.

They are also establishing links with the Political Committee and working groups in the Council of Ministers.

While foreign policy is not a pressing worry, Berg is concerned about the Union's security structures, arguing that the Western European Union (WEU) should take a place inside, and subordinate to, NATO, rather than replacing NATO as the Union's defence arm.

“We would have certain worries if the WEU were too rapidly integrated into the Union and became its defence and security arm,” he explains.

“To us, safeguarding NATO and its guarantee is of basic importance, because our security as a non-member of the Union will rest fundamentally on NATO. We would be very worried if anything were to weaken the alliance.”

Norway's associate membership of the WEU may give it a voice in that debate. But there is a whole raft of issues on which Oslo will not have a say, and would have fought for if it had a seat at EU tables.

Berg says his government “wouldn't have minded better coordination of CFSP”, leading to more efficient responses to world events than the one hammered out for Bosnia.

“We would have tried to develop third pillar cooperation,” adds Berg, describing the benefits of an efficient Europol (the EU's fledgling criminal intelligence agency) for participating countries.

“We would have asked for more openness. We would have liked to see all the member states join the social charter. We would have pushed for more Union involvement in fighting unemployment. We would have supported EMU as a creator of currency stability.”

Berg's list goes on, and it is clear he has spent long hours dreaming of a united Europe.

Sorry that Norwegians twice declined the offer, he at least has the comfort of feeling he led a successful team when forging a membership plan for Norway.

“I take solace that the negative vote was not the result of our negotiations. I can take no responsibility. If we'd had a lousy result, the No would have been stronger,” he insists.

The ambassador's hopes were dashed in the October 1994 referendum, but by only 30,000 votes - as slim as the margins that helped Denmark and France approve the Maastricht Treaty. But the vote could easily have gone the other way, he says.

“I want my friends to understand that although the referendum was negative, it showed that populations are divided,” he stresses. “I want to dispel the notion that Norwegians aren't Europeans.”

Can he envision Norway coming back for a third try? “We'll see. If one day the Union comprises all of Europe (after enlargements to the east), we'll have to consider it.”

Until that day, Norway needs to keep a close eye on changes in the Union and its development.

“I regret the lack of European debate in Norway. But it will come after we recover from the very intense debate of 1994.”

Berg, who leaves Brussels next month to become European affairs adviser to Norway's state-run oil company, Statoil, promises to keep the EU high in his compatriots' minds: “I shall do my best.”

Looking back on 12 years as top negotiator and diplomat, Berg describes them as “a period of immense satisfaction”, adding: “For a member of the foreign service to go through three of his country's most important negotiating processes is more than anyone can expect. And it is a pleasure to work hard for something you really believe in.

“I am a convinced European, and I will remain so until my dying day.”

With writing memos to Sweden almost forgotten as the ambassador waxes lyrical about his dreams of a united Europe, he says: “It is easy to talk about what fills the heart.”