Passivity or support? The European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War

Abstract

This article examines the path which led the member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) to support and assist in the democratic revolutions of 1989/90. Historians have increasingly acknowledged the role played by the European Community (EC) in helping countries unshackle themselves from Soviet control. By contrast, EFTA is barely featured. And yet by 1995, the Association had signed free trade agreements with nine former socialist countries, something openly acknowledged as being designed to promote democracy, human rights and political stability in the region. Utilising underexplored institutional archives, this article traces the internal deliberations surrounding the upheaval of 1989. It first exposes the deep divide that existed over whether to develop an EFTA ‘voice’ or contribution to unfolding events. It then unpacks the reasons why its members accepted that the ostensibly political task of helping Central and Eastern Europe was a legitimate action for an economic organisation like EFTA to undertake. Here the article points to the following: (1) the genuine concern for the fate of the socialist countries, but more so (2) the belief that doing nothing would expose EFTA states themselves to considerable political and financial risks. Lastly, it posits why the EFTA contribution, whilst in some ways ground-breaking for the organisation, ultimately proved slight. Along the way, the article highlights the importance of various interpretations of neutrality to political outcomes, the ever-increasing impact the EC/EU had on other European organisations, how the uncertainty thrown up by ‘1989’ affected smaller West European countries and how all this fed into adapting EFTA's original aims and objectives.