Norway kind of has a special relationship with the EU. They aren't members, but they follow some of the laws and participate in some programmes.
Wiki quote on Norway:
> After the 1994 referendum, Norway maintained its membership in the European Economic Area (EEA), an arrangement granting the country access to the internal market of the Union, on the condition that Norway implements the Union's pieces of legislation which are deemed relevant (of which there were approximately seven thousand by 2010) Successive Norwegian governments have, since 1994, requested participation in parts of the EU's co-operation that go beyond the provisions of the EEA agreement. Non-voting participation by Norway has been granted in, for instance, the Union's Common Security and Defence Policy, the Schengen Agreement, and the European Defence Agency, as well as 19 separate programmes.
Norway is often quicker to implement EU regulations than EU countries themselves, for example, in 2018 only Malta had implemented more regulations than Norway [1] (the comparison is a bit skewed as not all regulations applies to Norway so they have fewer to implement)
We part of the European Economic Area (EEA) which is quite close to being a EU member, but without voting rights. Norway voted two times on membership and the compromise was EEA.
To add to this: almost all EU regulations and rights – except those pertaining to agriculture and fisheries – apply to the whole of the EEA, meaning all of the EU + Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein (in addition, many also apply to Switzerland, but in that case through a complicated set of bilateral Swiss-EU agreements that sorta-kinda emulate EEA membership, but isn't).
Did the Norwegian fishing (salmon farming) industry have a big part in the EU vs EEA decision? From what I’ve seen lately about Norwegian Salmon farming I wonder if it would get past the EU regulations, if they even have any related to fish farming.
Some documentaries even call it the worlds most toxic food.
I did a lot of research on salmon aquaculture at work last year (random, I know).
Norway has one if the most well-developed aquaculture industries in the world, and it is heavily regulated.
I'd be very surprised if Norwegian aquaculture rules didn't exceed EU rules in about every single way.
I learned a lot about aquaculture, not all of which was very nice. But now when I buy farmed salmon, I specifically choose Norwegian salmon over my native Scottish salmon.
> Did the Norwegian fishing (salmon farming) industry have a big part in the EU vs EEA decision?
We definitely have to split the Norwegian fisheries industry into two: Norway has, and has for a long time had, a sizable wild fishing industry. The fish farming industry is a much newer one.
I was a kid last time we had a referendum on membership (1994), so I'm not sure, but I believe the fish farming industry wasn't even a major thing back then. The classical fisheries industry definitely was a big part of the reasoning. Today, I would wager that opponents of full membership are mostly riding on the same vague of opaque euroskepticism that brought us Brexit, combined with the sickening idea that Norwegians are somehow magically special and exceptionally good at things. Granted, my personal views on the matter definitely color this take.
> From what I’ve seen lately about Norwegian Salmon farming I wonder if it would get past the EU regulations, if they even have any related to fish farming.
I doubt that would be an issue.
> Some documentaries even call it the worlds most toxic food.
I really wish people would stop spreading this unsubstantiated bullshit. I have no connection with or investments in fish farming, but this claim was making the rounds a few years back, and as far as I can tell it's a completely unsubstantiated smear. It keeps getting repeated, but trying to actually get to the source just reveals a tangled web of self-referential claims.
There's plenty of problems with fish farming without having to make up shit about "toxic food". The two biggest being the horrid effect the escaped farmed fish have on the natural populations (they carry different diseases and parasites that can wipe out whole rivers of salmon, for instance), and the effect of over-feeding on the nearby ecosystem (you dump enormous amounts of feed into a relatively small volume of water, and far from all of it is actually consumed by the farmed fish). In addition to this, the feed often comes from just as unsustainable sources as the worst of the "Amazon beef". Hopefully the latter can be fixed with transparancy and regulations, though.
Plenty of problems with fish farming without needing to fabricate new ones. But then again, it may be the only solution to prevent overfishing (if we want to keep eating fish, which is certainly better overall than eating beef).
The GDPR is great for the citizens! My wish is that more countries follow the EU and implement similar and compatible laws. An interesting example of this is that the UK made sure to implement a clone of GDPR in UK law before leaving the EU/EEA.
It goes much further than just "often aligning with EU laws":
Almost all EU regulations and rights – except those pertaining to agriculture, fisheries and the customs union – apply to the whole of the EEA, meaning all of the EU + Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein (in addition, many also apply to Switzerland, but in that case through a complicated set of bilateral Swiss-EU agreements that sorta-kinda emulate EEA membership, but isn't).
For all intents and purposes, apart from the three areas stipulated above + voting rights, Norway is an EU member. A business that operates in Norway (outside of the agriculture or fisheries sector) can be seen as operating in the EU. Likewise, Norway-based users of a service with a business presence in the EU are protected by EU laws, like the GDPR.
Norwegians have the same access to the EU labor market as, say, Germans. And EU citizens have the same right to take up residence in Norway and interact with the Norwegian state under the same conditions as a Norwegian.
Interesting that Norway isn't part of EU, but they implement GDPR.