 He became Minister of Industry in the coalition cabinet formed by Lars Korvald after Trygve Bratteli resigned his cabinet after a referendum defeated his proposal for Norway to join the European Union.Skjåk Bræk ended up on the anti-EEC side, and as such stayed in the Liberal Party after the party split in 1972.He played an active role in the post-World War II economic development in Western Norway and took political and professional interest in the appropriate use of Norway's natural resources.