The paper is concentrated on the pre-history that led to the so-called Northern enlargement of the European Community. Specifically, the economic and political reasons that led the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark to drop their initial integration arrangements and seek membership in the European Economic Community. After an outlook of the European development after the Second World War, the respective developments in the named countries and their integration projects are analysed. At the end, some highlights about the rivalry caused by the creation of the continental scheme are presented, which ended with the establishing of the dominance of the European Community.