Why are Norway, Iceland, Belarus, and Switzerland not part of the EU?
Norway has a strong currency and isn’t interested in opening its fishing grounds for EU-wide exploitation. Also from what I have read (and this is purely me inferring this) the deregulation of energy is not something Norway is interested in as it has a stable, state-owned oil monopoly and one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. In Iceland, fishing is one of the largest industries so for the same reason they are not interested in EU membership. Membership is not really going to enhance the well-being of Icelanders; they are already in a union with the other Nordic countries and that seems to be sufficient. Switzerland is not interested because the EU legislative wing would circumvent their direct democracy and ability to overthrow laws by referenda. Also making their banking and finance sector more transparent is against their banking practices if I recall correctly. Belarus doesn’t meet the selection criteria for EU membership. The EU classes it as an authoritarian stat
