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

68
Tapani Paavonen
Finland should preserve the right to maintain social security on a sufficiently high
level. Thirdly, Finland should preserve the right to maintain and develop higher
standards for environmental protection than those in the EC area, and, finally, the
scope for national regional policy should be maintained.
The decisive part of the negotiations between the EFTA countries and the EC
Commission took place from June 1990 to October 1991, even though the whole
negotiation process was not completed until the spring of 1992. Expectedly, the EC
rejected definitively the Finnish reservation on foreign ownership, which went beyond
the common EC scheme, while the other reservations were not problematic
from the EC point of view. The EEA entered into force from the beginning of 1994,
but it applied to Finland only the very first year, as the country became later on a
member of the EU. 25
VI. The Question of EC/EU Membership
The end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s announced profound
changes in Finland's foreign orientation. In the spring of 1989 Finland, at last,
joined the Council of Europe, an event that reflected the change in the international
situation during the Soviet perestroika. In the autumn of 1990 the Finnish government
made a unilateral revision of those elements that determined Finland's international
position after 1947, i.e. the military clauses of the Paris Peace Treaty of
1947 and the concept of Germany as a possible aggressor as it appeared in the
Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance with the Soviet Union
of April 1948 (FCA Pact). However, up to 1991 EC membership was excluded
from official Finnish considerations. In the government report of 1988 this basic
view was expressed as follows:
“Implementing Finland's policy of neutrality requires that we keep decisionmaking
in our own hands. In our view this is not compatible with full membership in the EC.
The EC is striving to create a European union which would include a common foreign
policy”. 26
From about 1989 however emerged in the Finnish public opinion prominent advocates
for EC membership, even though President Koivisto and the government
tried hard to silence such remarks. An opinion poll in June 1991 showed a 64 percent
support for EC membership. In June 1991 the Party Congress of the Coalition
Party decided to back EC membership. In 1990-91 many economic organisations
issued similar statements. Sweden's application for EC membership on 1 July
1991, obviously, had a great influence on Finnish public opinion. 27
25. E. ANTOLA, Finland, op.cit., pp.152-154; cf. e.g. Valtiopäivät – Riksdagen 1992, Asiakirjat –
Handlingar, Government Proposal No.95, pp.4-9.
26. Finland and the Western European Integration Process. Report to Parliament by the Council of State
Concerning Finland's Attitude Towards the Western European Economic Integration Process, 1 November
1988, Helsinki (The Government Printing Centre), 1989, p.5.