for the european system of central banks. this challenge makes me believe that it is not a good idea to publish the minutes and the voting positions of the governing council meetings, even though transparency and accountability of the european system of central banks are very important. the publication of the discussions and voting positions could easily lead to dramatization of national differences of opinion at the expense of euro - level views. * * * during the 1990s, finland has gone through severe adjustments. we have consolidated our public finances and achieved credibility for our monetary policy. for us finns, the single monetary policy is a natural continuation of this process. in global, expectation - driven financial markets, a small country has poor possibilities to ensure its exchange rate and interest rate stability, even with a highly disciplined fiscal and monetary policy and sound economic fundamentals. for us, the stability and credibility that we expect from emu, and its discipline, are of vital importance.

became prime minister of the uk. they de - blocked the still pending issues and the eec membership for the uk, ireland, denmark and norway was again on the table. in 1973, the uk joined the eec together with ireland and denmark. for finland, this was the first brexit, then from efta. due to the importance of the british trade, this was a serious challenge, and negotiations were begun on a free trade agreement between finland and the eec. 3 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches finland and the other remaining efta countries were offered free trade in industrial goods. the soviet attitude towards finland, however, had again tightened after the occupation of czechoslovakia. the process leading to the free trade agreement with the eec involved various gestures and measures to convince the soviet leadership that an agreement would not mean a re - orientation in finland ’ s foreign policy. the free trade agreement between finland and the eec was successfully concluded in the end of 1973. jacques delors became president of the european commission in 1984 and lord cockfield the vice - president responsible for the internal market. they launched a major project for the single market. it deepened integration and the four freedoms : the free movement of goods, services, labour and capital. the follow - up question for finland and the other efta members was how to guarantee access to the single market. the negotiations led to the creation of the european economic area ( eea ). the eea included all four freedoms : the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour, plus participation in a cohesion fund. at the time when the project was started, it was supposed that efta and the eec would remain separate organizations. but the world and europe changed. the unification of germany in 1990 and the dissolution of the soviet union in 1991 changed everything. the eea agreement was signed on in may 1992 but by that time, finland had already applied for eu membership. the eea agreement entered into force in january in 1994. this was the solution for finland for one year only. why did finland apply for eu membership so soon? president mauno koivisto explained this well in his speech in parliament : we want to have a seat at the table where the decisions are made. we needed the european economic area, but we also wanted to have influence. we wanted both access and a say. membership negotiations with the ec ( soon to be the eu ) lasted over a year, starting in the