On the 1st of January 1995, Finland as well as Sweden and Austria officially joined the European Union (EU), bringing membership to 15. In addition to increasing the EU population by 21.6 million inhabitants, this enlargement raised the EU Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by roughly 7 percent. The three entrant countries were all former members of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) -a zone then economically less dynamic than the European Community - and had already had previous relationships with the Community through the European Economic Area (EEA), which linked the EFTA with the EU. …
