ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between the European Communities (EC)/European Union (EU) and its outside by means of an empirical analysis of European Free Trade Association (EFTA)-EC/EU relations as they developed from the creation of EFTA in 1960 to the Northern enlargement of the EU in 1995. The EFTA countries' creation of an outer free trade area was conducive to the EC's conclusion of bilateral agreements on free trade in industrial products with members of this organisation in 1972/73. The 1984 Luxembourg Declaration formalised existing cooperation and provided for multilateral cooperation in new areas alongside the bilateral track. At the meeting in Luxembourg, which took place against the backdrop of the EC's resolve to complete the internal market, the EC and EFTA agreed to 'consolidate and strengthen cooperation, with the aim of creating a dynamic European economic space of benefit to their countries'.
