>>>I can only talk abouit the situation in Norway, of course.
>>>
>>>There have been several cases where the system creators have gone out of business, and this has forced the law makers to create laws which require that there shall always be an export function to all accounting and similar programs. Then it's up to the administrators to decide which users shall have access to these export functions. In Norway all accounting programs must have well documented export functions, so that the IRS can perform unexpected visits and have the possibility to import the accounting data into their own system. They do not allow any exceptions.
>>
>>Interesting. I'd have to say world-wide this would be the exception, rather than the rule. Is the rule in Norway specific to your country or does it apply to the whole EU?
>
>I think this is specific for Norway.
>
>And BTW, Norway is not a member of EU, the same applies to Iceland, Switzerland and a few other european countries. EU wants us, but we don't want to join.

Norway would probably have to pay out a lot in subsidies to other countries, for little return.

>The polls vary from 40/60 to 60/40 over the years, but in the last general election we had on the subject, about 10 years ago, the majority was against joining. We have the oil, you know, so we are not so dependent on EU. Did you know that Norway is the world second largest exporter of oil, after Russia?

No I didn't, because that's wrong ;) By my reckoning (information from http://www.marcon.com/marcon2c.cfm?SectionGroupsID=51 and http://www.opec.org/library/Annual%20Statistical%20Bulletin/pdf/ASB2004.pdf ) net exports in millions of barrels per day:

Saudi Arabia ~ 9.5
Russia ~ 6.7
Norway ~ 3.0
Iran ~ 2.7
Venezuela ~ 2.2
Kuwait ~ 2.1

2nd biggest non-OPEC exporter, yes - and 3rd biggest world-wide. Never forget the 900-lb gorilla of the oil world ;)