I think an EU membership will only happen in Norway when the old generations die out, the yes/no divide is a big generational thing. Even though the latest poll only shows a six percent difference between yes/no, it's only as high as it is now because of the current political situation with trade wars and actual wars. Any vote now for a membership will only happen when a party knows the yes side will win, doing otherwise will postpone the vote another thirty years again. Personally I think we should join the EU, we're already heavily tangled with EU laws and regulations, but I understand the concerns for our agriculture and fishing industries.
What would make your agriculture and fishing industries less competitive by entering our market? I understand EU gives massive subsidies for those, wouldnt your farmers also benefit from those? EU money is distributed regarding the land usage [0], not the production quantity or sustainability. Norway seems a big country and the big deers (or whatever) ranchers would thrive with our system as well as does the biggest ranches in other EU countries. Don’t get me work, this system is unsustainable as it promotes the most land intensive food creation and EU still rely on worldwide importation for its animal feed needs.
Norway has incredibly high tolls and tariffs on importing food (a bit ironic nowadays), primarily to protect the local farmers etc. We're a big country, but the amount of arable land is small and the climate does us no favors. We're at about 39% self sufficient for food, and import a majority of our vegetables, grains and fruits (Norway is one of the biggest importers of food in the world). Fact of the matter is that the only thing that props up local farmers is the subsidies and high import fees, if we join the EU that will have to go and local farms will not be able to compete on the open market. There's obviously much more nuance and details here, but that's the gist of why a lot of people don't want to join the EU. The last vote was essentially decided by the agricultural industry in Norway.
