journal of european integration history revue d'histoire de l ...

An Elusive Partnership: Europe, Economic Co-operation and British Policy 119
In Uniscan policy-makers found a useful forum to discuss long-term strategies
and negotiation positions. Being a multilateral forum it brought the policy-making
machineries together in a manner that would not have been possible using normal
diplomatic channels. This, and the numerous studies conducted over the years for
the use of Uniscan meetings on the national economies and Anglo-Scandinavian
economic interaction, eventually paved the way for EFTA – when external conditions
so permitted – and provided that loose association with an institutional memory
concerning expectations the core members had over the potential and ramifications
of co-operation amongst them, and the behaviour and policy-making
processes typical on both sides of the North Sea.
Despite considerable political goodwill behind the scheme, the economic
achievements of Uniscan fell far short of the original British proposals of November-December
1949, when a more comprehensive financial liberalisation had been
envisaged. Had this approach been successful, the pound sterling would have become
convertible within this group which would have directly strengthened the
economic influence of Britain in Scandinavia, whose situation would then have
resembled that of the sterling area countries.
The utility of Anglo-Scandinavian discussions in Uniscan, were therefore of
technical and to a lesser extent, of political nature. While the ultimate ramifications
Uniscan co-operation was subjected to was acknowledged early on, it was nevertheless
kept alive. Within its limits, it provided a forum for consultations, discussions
and exchanges of view, and occasionally, a place where disagreements could
be dealt with “on the domestic plane”, as the British described it. More than anything
else, the history of its establishment in 1949-51, illuminates the complex set
of perceptions and misperceptions, hopes, fears and different national policy goals
the British and Scandinavian governments had during a key period in European integration
history.