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 …showed first 75 words of 2230 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2230 total…-48, http://europa.eu.int/comm/commission_barroso/kallas/transparency_en.htm [12 March 2006] Preston, C. (1997). Enlargement and Integration in the EU. London: Routledge Raunio, T. and Tiilikainen, T. (2003). Finland in the European Union. London: Cass Thomson, I. (2003). 'How to Find Legislation, Caselaw and Other EU Policy-making Information' in European Sources Online. Cambridge: ProQuest Information and Learning Törnudd, K. (2005). Finnish Neutrality Policy during the Cold War, http://virtual.finland.fi/History/ [18 March 2006]