ABSTRACT
When our negotiations opened, the problem of fisheries did not exist; but we saw it coming. It came later the same day. From then on fisheries was a major problem. At first, we did not realise how difficult it would prove to solve it or how strong the political passions would be which it was to arouse. It became in the end one of the most important as well as one of the most difficult questions in the whole negotiation; and it was the last to be solved. It was a question which produced serious difficulties not only with the Community but between the candidate countries. As political pressures in the United Kingdom grew stronger, and as the complications caused by Norway's special position increased, we ourselves changed our objective and our tactics more than once. In the end we got what we needed; but failure to do so could have meant failure to enter the Community at all.
