Dear Mr N.N. Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you very much for your kind introduction and for giving me the opportunity to be here and speak to you today. Norway is an extraordinary country with its 2515km long land frontier and a coastline that stretches 22,000km. Your ancestors have settled Iceland, ruled over French principalities, founded European cities like Dublin, and started the transatlantic dialogue as early as 1000 years ago, when Leif Eriksson discovered America. And yet, despite Norway's long history of free movement of goods and people, a slight majority of Norwegians has rejected participation in Europe's integration into a community of states and peoples, preferring to go its way alone. Nordic media, just like in the rest of Europe, concentrate all too often on the shortcomings on the European scene and headlines about European affairs claim that 'the EU wants to control Norwegian oil'.
Editors tend to say that only bad news are worth printing.
Let me therefore take the opportunity to convey to you my own view as to what the EU really is all about. I will point out the reasons that led Robert Schuman to his famous declaration that he made 51 years ago. Secondly, I will give a short overview of the success story that European integration is. Moreover, I will take a look at the bilateral relations between Norway and the EU, particularly in the fields of agriculture and fisheries. This will lead me to the question how small states can articulate their interests within the European Union.