Formation of the European Free Trade Association

Abstract

In April 1948 the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was established to administer Marshall Aid and promote the economic recovery of Western Europe.1 Among the purposes of the OEEC was the progressive freeing of trade and payments between the member countries. When it became clear, following the Messina conference in 1955, that the member states of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) intended to establish a general customs union between themselves, the other members of the OEEC began active consideration of ways and means to overcome the threatened “division” of Western Europe.