Already in 1961, the British and Danish applied for membership in the EEC, closely followed by Norway. The neutral EFTA states Sweden, Austria and Switzerland applied for association. Due to our geopolitical position, Finland was not able to follow the same course of action. The EEC was seen, already then, as more than just a trade area, and rightly so.
This political dimension precluded the Finnish participation at the time. But the enlargement negotiations failed twice in 1963 and 1967, mainly due to the ¨Non!¨ to British membership by French president de Gaulle.