Roar Bjonnes, Author at Systems Change Alliance

13/06/2020

Why Norway Refused to Join the EU

Economy

In 1972, the streets of Norway were filled with protests against the EU when by referendum a majority of Norwegian voters rejected EU membership. The same situation repeated itself in 1994. Throughout the years, opposition against the EU has been dom ...

13/06/2020

Toward New European Trade Policies

Economy

While the EU has maintained a common market, it has also pushed other countries to adapt free trade policies and not to impose tariffs on exports from the EU. If countries would impose tariffs on EU exports, it would make those goods more costly and ...

13/06/2020

Why is the EU Disintegrating and How to Stop It?

Economy

The unity of a nation or the international unity amongst many nations, such as within the EU, are generally built around certain sentiments, whether religious, linguistic, or cultural. The vast continent of the Soviet Union was united based on an ant ...

13/06/2020

Beyond the EU: Toward a New Union

Economy

Both the EU and, in a broader context, the financial institutions that have shaped economic policy during the latter part of the 20th century as well as into the 21st, were based on the idea that prosperity for all will promote peace and stability. I ...

13/06/2020

The EU’s Four Freedoms, the Environment, and the Local Economy

In theory, we have few reservations regarding free trade. Given optimum conditions, free trade as set forth in the EUs Four Freedoms, can have great cultural and economic benefits. But free trade can also be detrimental to the local areas within ...

13/06/2020

The Problems with the Euro Zone

Economy

While the four freedoms created the foundation for a free market and removed many tools of national governments to control the economic development of their countries, there still remained one obstacle to a fully open market. That was the exchang ...

13/06/2020

Uneasy Progress: Increased Inequality and Mobility in the EU

The EUs social charter, as envisioned by Jacques Delors, one of the original architects behind the EU, is based on a fundamental vision of basic economic and social security for all Europeans. According to the New Internationalist, however, “Th ...

13/06/2020

Do We Want System Change or Systems Change?

At first glance, these two concepts may seem almost identical, one word is singular, the other plural. Two words with basically the same meaning. Or so I thought. Until I read the excellent book “The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and ...

13/06/2020

A Brief History of EU

Economy

After World War II ended in 1945, Europe was a divided continent. In 1946 the European Union of Federalists formed to campaign for a United States of Europe. In September of that same year, Churchill called for a United States of Europe centered arou ...

Roar Bjonnes

Why Norway Refused to Join the EU

Toward New European Trade Policies

Why is the EU Disintegrating and How to Stop It?

Beyond the EU: Toward a New Union

The EU’s Four Freedoms, the Environment, and the Local Economy

The Problems with the Euro Zone

Do We Want System Change or Systems Change?

A Brief History of EU

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