Dane to head Norway's No to EU
Norway's No to EU, the largest of all EU critical movements, has chosen Helle Hagenau, Danish anti-EU activist, as the Movement's new secretary general.
Helle Hagenau will be known as former secretary of TEAM (The European Anti Maastricht Alliance) and from May 2000 as National Officer of the British organization Trade Unions Against the Single Currency.
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In her new post, Helle Hagenau will be first and foremost responsible for the internal organization and for contacts with sister movements in other countries, while elected leader Sigbjørn Gjelsvik will represent the organisation to the general public.
When asked by Norwegian paper Dagsavisen whether it had been necessary to move outside Norway to find a good candidate for the post, Sigbjørn Gjelsvik answers, "no, Hagenau was asked to apply, and we wanted to have her", and underlined that the work against the EU in Norway is in many ways like what is done in Denmark and the UK:
"We have that in common that we do not want the centralization of power which the EU represents. The Danes and the Britons may be in the EU, but resistance against the Euro is strong. The Danes have said no in a referendum, and the Britons are strongly sceptical. And in particular, the political debate in Denmark is very much like that in this country. Being a small country, Denmark has little influence in the EU, and the same thing goes for Norway outside the EU."
Helle Hagenau is a Danish citizen and started her international carreer as secretary to Jens Peter Bonde from the June Movement. She has a detailed knowledge of the workings of the European Union. Helle Hagenau speaks fluently English, French, German, Swedish and Danish.