An alternative to the EEC Six emerges when the "Seven" - Austria, Denmark, Norway Portugal Sweden, Switzerland and the UK - set up EFTA, the European Free Trade Association. Finland, Iceland and Liechtenstein also join later.
Like the EEC, EFTA aims to establish free trade in western Europe but it differs in that it opposes uniform external tariffs and does not want to put member countries under the authority of supranational institutions.
Eighteen months after EFTA is set up, its driving force, the UK, applies to join the EEC. UK membership of the EEC is stalled when French President Charles de Gaulle vetoes it, but eventually all but three of EFTA's members end up leaving the Association to join the EEC.