1995 enlargement of the European Union

Norway had negotiated to join alongside the other three, but following the signing of the treaty, membership was turned down by the Norwegian electorate in the 1994 national referendum.

The three states, plus Norway and Switzerland (which never joined due to their referendum results) began to look at stronger ties with the EU (which was the European Economic Community (EEC) before 1993) towards the end of the 1980s for three principal reasons: the 1980s economic downturn in Europe, difficulties for EFTA companies to export to the EU and the end of the Cold War.

[2] Finally, Austria, Finland and Sweden were neutral in the Cold War so membership of an organisation developing a common foreign and security policy would be incompatible with that.

Commission President Jacques Delors proposed the European Economic Area to give EFTA access to the EU's internal market without full membership.

The large manufacturers in Sweden were instrumental in pushing government policy further towards membership rather than remaining with the EEA, which the export focused industries found insufficient.

The economic pressures overcame long standing opposition from the social democrat governments which saw the EU as too neo-liberal and a danger to the Nordic model.

[2] Before the 1995 enlargement, the EU had ten treaty languages: Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.