‘The EC marathon.’ In 1989, the Austrian cartoonist, Ironimus, portrays Austria’s possible accession to the European Communities as an obstacle course.
On 4 November 1992, the European Commission delivers a reasoned opinion on Finland's application for accession to the European Communities, basing its analysis, in particular, on areas which are central to the accession negotiations including the policy of neutrality, Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), agriculture, regional policies and foreign and security policy.
In an article published in 1988 in the Austrian magazine Europäische Rundschau, Kalevi Sorsa, Finnish Foreign Minister, emphasises his country’s role in Europe and states that the concept of Europe does not boil down to the European Communities alone.
On 18 March 1992, Mauno Koivisto, President of the Republic of Finland, and Esko Aho, Finnish Prime Minister, send a letter to João de Deus Pinheiro, Portuguese Foreign Minister and President-in-Office of the Council of the European Communities, in which Finland officially submits its application for accession to the European Economic Community (EEC).
In June 1992, Pertti Salolainen, Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade, outlines in the monthly legal journal Revue du Marché Commun et de l’Union Européenne the economic implications of Finland’s accession to the European Communities.
On 5 November 1992, the European Commission (EC) meets in Brussels to discuss the question of Finland’s accession to the European Union. From left to right: Henning Christophers, Vice-President of the EC, Commissioner for the Budget and Administrative Affairs, Jacques Delors, President of the EC, and David Williamson, Secretary-General of the EC.
In the spring of 1993, in an article for Politique étrangère, a magazine produced by the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), Paul Luif, Member of the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (ÖIIP), outlines the reasons which have prompted Austria, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland to apply for accession to the European Union and considers the economic, political and strategic implications of the future accession negotiations.
On 18 October 1994, Martti Ahtisaari, President of the Republic of Finland, delivers an address at the University of Oslo on the role of the Nordic countries in the rapidly evolving international community.
