activity ”, where notary departments of banks mediated loans with flexible interest rates outside the official system. the “ grey economy ” was an indication of the pressures created by tight rationing of the finnish financial system in the 1980 ’ s. references : honkapohja s. ( 2014a ), financial crises : lessons from the nordic experience, journal of financial stability, 13, 193 – 201. honkapohja s. ( 2014b ), lessons from the financial liberalization in the nordic countries in the 1980s, in woo, w. t., pan, y., sachs, j., qian, j. ( eds. ), financial systems at the crossroads. world scientific publishing, singapore, 2014, 135 – 163. reinhard c. m. and k. s. rogoff ( 2008 ), is the 2007 us sub - prime financial crisis so different? an international historical comparison. american economic review 98, 339 – 344. reinhard c. m. and k. s. rogoff ( 2009 ), this time is different, eight centuries of financial folly, 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches princeton university press, princeton. 1 see reinhard and rogoff ( 2008, 2009 ). 2 the finnish crisis and those of norway and sweden are well discussed in the literature. for example, see honkapohja ( 2014 a, b ) and the references there in. 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches

spring of 1993, simultaneously with other applicant countries. in the finnish referendum of october 1994, the eu membership was approved with 57 percent against 43, i. e. with a large majority. on the 1st of january 1995, our membership entered into force – and you could say that we were again united with britain in the same club. britain has traditionally been a supporter of a wider europe, and also we finns enjoyed the support from the uk during our accession process. as members, we both have been strong supporters of free trade and the single market. * * * finland and the uk were first together in efta. then the uk moved on and joined the eec. our reunion in the eu took place in 1995, 22 years later, in 1995, when finland joined. now, in 2017, we have been members together for another 22 years. the general assessment of the membership in finland is overwhelmingly positive. i just quote two respected statesmen and thinkers from finland. max jakobson, the great finnish diplomat and historian told his daughter linda two years after finland had joined the european union : " listen, only during last few days i have understood that finland is, for the first time in her history, fully independent " mauno koivisto, our late president, said at his 90th birthday dinner : " i belong to the generation which fought for independence. then we worked for integration in order to gain more influence. the pessimists were wrong. " 4 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches from 1990 onward, i followed and participated in the events as the finnish ambassador to the ec. the autumn of 1991 was a decisive period. sweden had followed austria and applied for the ec membership. the soviet union was falling apart. in the uk, john major was the new prime minister after margaret thatcher, defending british interests in the negotiations leading to the maastricht treaty. i had great colleagues in the british foreign office. john kerr was the permanent representative then. let me mention, that as eu commissioner from 1995 i had of course the good fortune to cooperate with outstanding individuals from the uk : leon brittan, neil kinnock, and chris patten. i have very fond memories of cooperation with them. there have also been differences between our countries ’ choices and policies within the eu. most importantly, finland became an early member of the economic and monetary union in 1999, while the uk remained outside the euro. britain has of course stayed outside the schengen area