European Economic Area - Origins

Origins

See also: 1995 enlargement of the European Union, 2004 enlargement of the European Union, and 2007 enlargement of the European Union

In the late 1980s, the EFTA member states, led by Sweden, began looking at options to join the then European Communities. The reasons identified for this are manifold. Many authors cite the economic downturn in the beginning of the 1980s, and the subsequent adoption by the European Union of the Europe 1992 agenda as a primary reason. Arguing from a liberal intergovernmentalist perspective, these authors argue that large multinational corporations in EFTA countries, especially Sweden, pressed for EEC membership under threat of relocating their production abroad. Other authors point to the end of the Cold War, which made joining the EU less politically controversial for neutral countries.

Meanwhile, Jacques Delors, who was president of the European Commission at the time, did not like the idea of the EEC enlarging with more member states, as he feared that it would impede the ability of the Community to complete the internal market reform and establish the monetary union. Delors proposed a European Economic Space (EES) in January 1989, which was later renamed to European Economic Area, as it is known today.

By the time the EEA was established, however, several developments hampered its credibility. First of all, Switzerland rejected the EEA agreement in a national referendum on December, 6 1992 obstructing full EU-EFTA integration within the EEA. Furthermore, Austria had applied for full EEC membership in 1989, and was followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland between 1991 and 1992 (Norway's EU accession was rejected in a referendum, Switzerland froze its EU application after the EEA agreement was rejected). The fall of the Iron Curtain made the EU less hesitant to accept these highly developed countries as member states, since that would relieve the pressure on the EU's budget when the former communist countries of Central Europe were to join.

Read more about this topic:  European Economic Area

Famous quotes containing the word origins:

    “Grown onto every inch of plate, except
    Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
    Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
    Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
    The origins of art.”
    —Howard Moss (b. 1922)

    “Lucretius
    Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
    smiling carves dreams, bright cells
    Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
    —Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)

    “Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
    —W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)