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The1995 enlargement of the European Union sawAustria,Finland, andSwedenaccede to theEuropean Union (EU). This was the EU's fourth enlargement and came into effect on 1 January of that year. It is also known as the EFTA Enlargement round.^[1] All these states were previous members of theEuropean Free Trade Association (EFTA) and had traditionally been less interested in joining the EU than other European countries.Norway had negotiated to join alongside the other three, but following the signing of the treaty, membership was turned down by the Norwegian electorate in the1994 national referendum.Switzerland also applied for membership on 26 May 1992, but withdrew it after a negative referendum result on 6 December 1992 (and that was not changed after a second negative referendum result on 4 March 2001).

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The three states, plusNorway andSwitzerland (which never joined due to their referendum results) began to look at stronger ties with the EU (which was theEuropean Economic Community (EEC) before 1993) towards the end of the 1980s for three principal reasons: the 1980s economic downturn in Europe, difficulties for EFTA companies to export to the EU and the end of the Cold War.^[2]

After the 1970s Europe experienced a downturn which led to leaders launching of theSingle European Act which set to create a single market by 1992. The effect of this was thatEFTA states found it harder to export to the EEC and businesses (including large EFTA corporations such asVolvo) wished to relocate within the new single market making the downturn worse for EFTA. EFTA states began to discuss closer links with the EEC despite its domestic unpopularity.^[2]

Finally, Austria, Finland and Sweden were neutral in theCold War so membership of an organisation developing acommon foreign and security policy would be incompatible with that. As that obstacle was removed, the desire to pursue membership grew stronger.^[2]

However membership was still domestically unpopular and the then-EEC was also uninterested in another enlargement. The EEC had begun working on thecreation of a common currency and did not want another enlargement to divert their attention away from that project.Commission PresidentJacques Delors proposed theEuropean Economic Area to give EFTA access to the EU's internal market without full membership. While they would not have a say in the creation of EU law, it would be easier to sell to their electorates.^[2]

However businesses did not accept that the EEA members would be equal members of the single market and investment flows did not return to normal. The large manufacturers in Sweden were instrumental in pushing government policy further towards membership rather than remaining with the EEA, which the export focused industries found insufficient. The economic pressures overcame long standing opposition from the social democrat governments which saw the EU as too neo-liberal and a danger to theNordic model. Firms were only kept within Sweden by devaluations of theSwedish krona, a strategy which was unsustainable in the long term.^[2]

The EEA was damaged further when the Swiss electorate voted against it. Austria, Finland, Norway and Sweden all applied for full membership of the EU and the EU agreed to enter negotiations. The EU's change of heart was also due to predictedenlargement of the EU towards countries mostly in central Europe, invited by the European Commission in 1997 and eventually completed in 2004, and hence the wealthy EFTA members would help balance the EU budget.^[2]

On 30 March 1994, accession negotiations concluded with Austria, Sweden, Finland and Norway. Their accession treaties were signed on 25 June of that year. Each country heldreferendums on entry resulting on entry for all except Norway (whose second referendum failed);

• Austria (application submitted in July 1989) - 66.6% in favour (12 June 1994)
• Finland (application submitted in March 1992 and separate referendum held inÅland) - 56.9% in favour (16 October 1994)
• Sweden (application submitted in July 1991) - 52.8% in favour (13 November 1994);
• Norway (application submitted in December 1992) - 47.8% in favour (28 November 1994)

Austria, Finland and Sweden became EU members on 1 January 1995. Sweden held its elections to theEuropean Parliament for itsMEPs later that year on 17 September. The following year, Austria held its elections on 13 October and Finland on 20 October.

Austria, Sweden, Finland became members on 1 January 1995, but some areas of cooperation in the European Union were deferred to a later date. These are:

• Eurozone (seeEnlargement of the eurozone; Sweden is still not a member of the Eurozone)

The impact of the 1995 enlargement was smaller than most as the members were wealthy and already culturally aligned with existing members. It did however create a Nordic bloc in the Council, with Sweden and Finland backing up Denmark on environmental and human rights issues (which Austria also backed up) and the Nordic countries also called for membership of theBaltic states. As net contributors to the EU budget, they also increased the voice for budgetary reform.^[2]

Before the 1995 enlargement, the EU had ten treaty languages: Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. However, due to the 1995 enlargement, two new official languages were added: Swedish (which is an official language of both Sweden and Finland) and Finnish.

This enlargement began to show the problems with the EU's institutional structure, such as the size of the Commission (with minor jobs insulting the state receiving them) and the Council's voting rules meaning states representing 41% of the population could be outvoted. This resulted in the increase in the blocking minority in the Council and the loss of the larger states' secondEuropean Commissioner. Planning also began on newamending treaties to ready the bloc for the next enlargement.^[2]

Member countries	Capital	Population	Area (km2)	GDP (billion US$)	GDP per capita (US$)	Languages
Austria	Vienna	9,027,999	83,871	145.238	18,048	German
Finland	Helsinki	5,635,971	338,145	80.955	15,859	Finnish Swedish
Sweden	Stockholm	10,588,207	449,964	156.640	17,644	Swedish
Accession countries		22,029,977	871,980	382.833	17,378	2 new
EU15 (1995)		372,939,379 (+6.28%)	3,367,154 (+34.95%)	6,277.065 (+6.50%)	16,831 (+0.20%)	12
EU12 (1994)		350,909,402	2,495,174	5,894.232	16,797	10

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• Sweden and the euro
• 1973 enlargement of the European Communities
• 1981 enlargement of the European Communities
• 1986 enlargement of the European Communities
• 2004 enlargement of the European Union
• 2007 enlargement of the European Union
• 2013 enlargement of the European Union
• Neutral and Non-Aligned European States

• Historical enlargements of the European Union
• 1995 in the European Union
• 1995 in economic history
• January 1995 in Europe
• Austria and the European Union
• Finland and the European Union
• Sweden and the European Union
• 1995 in Austria
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