ABSTRACT
Over the past two decades, the neighbours of the European Union (EU) have increasingly developed ‘a stake’ in its internal market. The model often referred to as a source of inspiration, or as a future aspiration, is the European Economic Area (EEA) between the EU and the countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). In 1989, Commission President Delors (1989: 17–18) had offered the then seven EFTA countries, which feared disadvantages as a result of the completion of the internal market, to look for ‘a new, more structured partnership with common decision-making and administrative institutions’. The internal market was, as of 1994, extended to the EFTA on the basis of two ‘pillars’: the European Community (EC) and a strengthened EFTA. However, within one year, Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the EU, as the final institutional set-up of the EEA, with its ‘participatory deficit’, was a source of frustration for them (Gstöhl 1994). Whereas Norway voted against membership for a second time, Switzerland suspended its application for full membership after it failed to ratify participation in the EEA Agreement. This has, for the past two decades, left Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein in the EEA EFTA pillar.
