External Relations in Science and Technology 



Integration has created a variety of issues around the 

 establishment of EC external economic and political 

 relations, as well as uncertainties in the maintenance of 

 bilateral relations between the member states and 

 non-EC nations. The Commission has established three 

 priorities, geographically-based, in turning its attention 

 to these matters. Its longest-standing relationships have 

 been with the countries of the European Free Trade 

 Association (EFTA), Western and Central European 

 countries with democratic traditions and market 

 economies. The form of their relationship to the EC 

 requires the most urgent attention. Next in priority are 

 the countries of formerly -communist Central and 

 Eastern Europe, more to support political and economic 

 restructuring in those countries than in expectation of 

 significant short-term market advantages to be gained. In 

 third priority relative to S&T concems, though 

 admittedly of greater significance, the Commission has 

 placed the formalization of relations with the U.S., Japan 

 and other non-European industrialized countries. 

 Extension of modest EC efforts among the developing 

 countries is unlikely to receive substantially increased 

 attention. 



The European Free Trade Association and 

 Expansion of the EC 



The EFTA countries [Sweden, Norway, Finland, 

 Iceland, Austria and Switzerland] since the early 1960's 

 have formed a loose trading bloc whose viability appears 

 increasingly vulnerable as the primary characteristics of 

 intra-European and intemational commerce are being 

 transformed. The maintenance of "neutrality" in the 

 East- West struggle, long a primary consideration for all 

 but Norway, is no longer a serious issue. Austria has 

 already submitted a formal application for EC 

 membership, on which the EC has deferred action until 

 after 1992. The Swedish govemment appears to be on 

 the verge of making its own application, while the issue 

 of membership has become a political hot potato in 

 Switzerland, giving rise to vocal public debate. In all the 

 EFTA countries, the anticipated advantages of the Single 

 Market to those in it, and the costs of exclusion, are 

 beginning to cause serious anxieties. 



The issue of new members for the Community is not 

 a one-way path, however. The dominant mood among 

 Community officials and most member state 

 governments is that the Single Market must be 



implemented as planned, and allowed to coalesce and 

 mature somewhat, before any new members can be 

 accommodated. As a palliative, the Community is 

 working closely with the EFTA nations individually in 

 their efforts to realign their economic policies, along 

 with the pertinent legislation and regulatory statutes, to 

 link them to the Single Market. This has resulted in 

 rather desultory talks to create a "Common European 

 Space" that would somehow provide consultative access 

 to EC institutions for EFTA countries in matters of 

 legislation and executive policy. 



The EC-EFTA relationship has demonstrated not only 

 flexibility in moving toward the Community's goal of a 

 united Europe, but also the dilemma of having to pursue 

 cooperative and harmonizing policies externally, well in 

 advance of attainting either the form or substance of a 

 truly integrated internal market. The resultant impasse in 

 extending the geographic inclusiveness of the EC within 

 Western Europe has proven an obstacle to resolving 

 other, equally pressing and important, external affairs 

 issues. Thus, in matters of S&T cooperation with 

 non-EC countries, and despite a high level of interest 

 among EC officials in instituting such relations formally 

 with the U.S., Japan and other nations, the initiation of 

 that cooperation is presently hobbled by existing 

 ambiguities and constraints regarding progress on the 

 full integration of Europe itself. 



The continuation of that situation is becoming more 

 untenable with each passing day, however. German 

 reunification, and the de facto incorporation of the 

 German Democratic Republic into the EC, has forced 

 Community politicians and the Member State 

 governments to recognize that the EFTA problem must 

 be removed quickly. The EC is finding it politically 

 awkward to justify accepting the former Warsaw Pact 

 country into the Community, and negotiating 

 increasingly close ties to the rest of Eastern Europe, 

 while continuing to exclude other West European 

 nations from full participation. The nature, geographic 

 extent and philosophical base of the EC are all being 

 hurriedly re-evaluated, upsetting the patiently crafted 

 balance of interests heretofore dominating the legislative 

 and regulatory agenda of the Community. 



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