journal of european integration history revue d'histoire de l ...

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Tapani Paavonen
ment prohibited, of course, foreign trade regulations on products subject to the agreement.
The agreement included, however, the same reservations than FINN-EFTA for
import regulations on fossil fuels and phosphate and potassium fertilisers, in order to
secure Finland's Eastern trade. 21
V. The Question of the European Economic Space/Area
The extension of EFTA-EC cooperation beyond mere free trade was discussed,
especially within EFTA, from 1977 onwards. Eventually, the mid-1980s marked a
completely new stage in Finland's relationship with the West European integration.
Since then Finland's position too shifted away from mere free trade on industrial
goods to an all-embracing integration, albeit the new orientation materialised only
a decade later.
The Luxembourg Declaration of 1984, issued by the first joint meeting of EFTA
and EC ministers, was the starting point for the creation of the European Economic
Space (EES), later on renamed the European Economic Area (EEA). The EES
project was connected with the new Single Market program of the EC, which was
made public in the White Book of 1985, to create a genuine common market by
1992. The EES agenda was, thus, enlarged to comprise the so-called four freedoms,
i.e. free movement of goods, services, capital and labour. Up to the East European
revolution in the autumn of 1989 it was supposed that EFTA and the EC would remain
separate organisations, approximately as they were thus far, and therefore the
new West European market construction was to be based on cooperation between
these two pillars. This also gave impetus to the design of strengthening EFTA, i.e.
transforming it into an EC-like organisation acting on behalf of its member states. 22
By 1984 Finland's readiness to participate in West European integration had
changed decisively. Economically, Finland had been transformed into a developed
industrial country, completely adjusted to the competitive circumstances of West
European markets. Over half of her foreign trade was conducted with the EC. Finland's
international position too had changed in fact. Surely the East-West tensions
did not vanish until the latter half of the 1980s and the officially proclaimed basic
assumptions of both the Soviet and the Finnish foreign policy remained intact.
There were, however, no visible signs, at least not publicly expressed, that would
have indicated any Soviet objections to Finland's participation in the projected
21. See E. ANTOLA and O. TUUSVUORI, Länsi-Euroopan integraatio, op.cit., pp.152-154; R. VOLK
and H. ESKELINEN, EEC-vapaakauppa 1970-luvulla. Näkökohtia toimialoittaisista ja alueittaisista
vaikutuksista Suomessa, Helsinki, 1982, pp.56-57 and Valtiopäivät – Riksdagen 1973, Asiakirjat –
Handlingar III:1, Government Proposal No.171, pp.4-6.
22. See E. ANTOLA, EFTA and its Limits, in: H. WALLACE (ed.), The Wider Western Europe.
Reshaping the EC/EFTA Relationship, London/New York, 1991, pp.240-244; and ibid., Special
Relationship. EFTA and the European Community as Actors in European Free Trade, in: Efta
Bulletin, 2/2000, pp.13-23.