he was only invited, but in the end even he did not attend. his friends advised him not to go. this story tells how far finland was from the european discussion at the time. so it was no surprise that finland was not among the founding members of the council of europe in may 1949. actually, finland did not join the council of europe before 1989. early in the 1950 ’ s, the european coal and steel union was founded at the initiative of robert schuman, former french prime minister and was followed by the eec, european economic community, created by the treaty of rome 60 years ago. finland´s two biggest trading partners, uk and sweden decided to stay outside the eec at that time. those countries, which in 1957 had not taken part of the treaty of rome, founded instead the european free trade association ( efta ) in 1960, a trade bloc of seven countries centred around the uk, its biggest member. the founding of efta was a big challenge for finnish trade policy. the major part of the finnish exports went to western europe. the trade with soviet union was on the average around fifteen per cent during the post - war period. for this reason, a major objective for finland was again to secure the access to the markets in western europe and, at that time, especially the uk. the uk and the other participants agreed that the finnish government could follow the negotiations on the efta agreement. however, at the demand of the british, finland ’ s observers were not allowed to be present in the negotiation room but were to be kept informed, in the first place, through sweden. that was the solution for finland. we were there, but not allowed to sit at the tables where decisions were taken. 2 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches so, the uk being a founding member of efta, finland negotiated the so - called fin - efta agreement, which made us an associate member of efta in 1961 and gave us access to the markets of the area. as a political condition, finland gave the same trade concessions also to the soviet union. the associate membership of finland was a delicate operation due to the suspicions in moscow. but for finland it was important and beneficial. efta exposed finnish industries to more competition from abroad and opened new markets to our exports, especially in the uk and sweden. this diversified our economy and started structural changes, which made us more competitive in larger markets. in some sense you can

some good news. j. g. monnet had a new client, for in that same year the finnish state alcohol monopoly, alko, began buying cognac from the monnets. monnet switched continents to become an investment banker in shanghai, china, where he was involved in devising a way of financing the enormous railway network. although of limited professional interest, monnet's moscow contacts were altogether more rewarding from a personal point of view. in 1929 he had fallen in love with an italian lady at a dinner party in paris. but the lady also had a husband on the scene and it was not possible for catholics to get divorced. eventually after some rather intricate manoeuvring monnet traveled with his beloved silvia to moscow, where catholic marriages were not recognized. they got married there in 1934 with the assistance of the russian authorities. at the same time j. k. paasikivi retired from the post of chairman of the kansallis - osake pankki. it was not until six years later that he was sent to moscow to become ambassador together with his wife alli. in contrast robert schuman remained unmarried for his whole life. outsiders on the inside in 1936 monnet returned to washington, where his family lived until the end of the war. he developed an extensive network of contacts in the city. he was a friend of leading newspaperman walter lippman, and john foster dulles was the lawyer who worked on many of monnet's banking operations. monnet was an influential figure in president roosevelt's close circle. it would only be a slight exaggeration to say of him what max jakobson said of paasikivi's position during the war : that he was a sort of " outsider on the inside ". in any case, it was an exceptional position for a frenchman to be in. when war broke out, member of parliament, robert schuman was involved in the evacuation of his constituency of thionville. in 1940 he was appointed france's under - secretary of state for refugee affairs. he was the high - ranking government official first to be notified of the massive german offensive in may 1940. the french government was transferred to vichy and schuman with it. but when all constitutional powers were conferred on marshal petain by decision of the national assembly, schuman realized that he had been caught in a trap. schuman left vichy and returned to his constituency in august 1940