European Economic Area

European Economic Area

European Economic Area and the Treaties of the European Union

Description of European Economic Area provided by the European Union Commission: Agreement Between the Community, and three Member States of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA)(not Switzerland) entered into force on 1 January 2004 aiming to allow the three EFTA countries – Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein – to participate in the Internal Market, while not assuming the full responsibilities of EU membership. The Agreement contains provisions to allow cooperation between the Community and the EEA-EFTA States in a range of Community activities: research and technological development, information services, the environment, education, social policy, consumer protection, small and medium-sized enterprises, tourism, the audio-visual sector and civil protection. Where the EEA-EFTA States are admitted to participate in these programmes, they contribute to the budgets of the programmes in question and participate in the committees that manage them, but with no right to vote. The EEA-EFTA states also make a financial contribution to the EU budget towards the reduction of economic and social disparities.

European Economic Area (EEA)

See EEA disambiguation page for other meanings of EEA

The European Economic Area, abbreviated as EEA, consists of the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU) and three countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) (all except Switzerland, namely: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway)

The Agreement on the EEA entered into force on 1 January 1994. It seeks to strengthen trade and economic relations between the contracting parties and is principally concerned with the four fundamental pillars of the internal market, namely: the free movement of goods, people, services and capital. The availability of comparable statistical data is considered as relevant to the four freedoms and is therefore included in the agreement

EU enlargements had a direct impact on the EEA Agreement, and the enlarged EEA now includes 31 countries (EFTA countries in italic):

Belgium (BE) Spain (ES) Hungary (HU) Slovakia (SK)

Bulgaria (BG) France (FR) Malta (MT) Finland (FI)

Czech Republic (CZ) Croatia (HR) Netherlands (NL) Sweden (SE)

Denmark (DK) Italy (IT) Austria (AT) United Kingdom (UK)

Germany (DE) Cyprus (CY) Poland (PL) Iceland (IS)

Estonia (EE) Latvia (LV) Portugal (PT) Liechtenstein (LI)

Ireland (IE) Lithuania (LT) Romania (RO) Norway (NO)

Greece (EL) Luxembourg (LU) Slovenia (SI)

European Economic Area

Embracing mainstream international law, this section on european economic area explores the context, history and effect of the area of the law covered here.

European Economic Area and the European Union

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See Also

  • International Organization
  • Foreign Relations
  • Intergovernmental Organization
  • Regional Organization
  • Regional Integration

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See Also

  • EEA

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Further Reading

  • The entry “european economic area” in the Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (currently, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 2009), Oxford University Press

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Further Information

European Free Trade Association (EFTA)

European Union (EU)

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See Also

Popular Treaties Topics

  • Treaties of the United Nations (UN)
  • Types of Treaties
  • International Treaties
  • Famous Treaties
  • Law of Treaties
  • Numbered Treaties

European Economic Area and the Treaties of the European Union

Description of European Economic Area provided by the European Union Commission: Agreement Between the Community, and three Member States of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA)(not Switzerland) entered into force on 1 January 2004 aiming to allow the three EFTA countries – Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein – to participate in the Internal Market, while not assuming the full responsibilities of EU membership. The Agreement contains provisions to allow cooperation between the Community and the EEA-EFTA States in a range of Community activities: research and technological development, information services, the environment, education, social policy, consumer protection, small and medium-sized enterprises, tourism, the audio-visual sector and civil protection. Where the EEA-EFTA States are admitted to participate in these programmes, they contribute to the budgets of the programmes in question and participate in the committees that manage them, but with no right to vote. The EEA-EFTA states also make a financial contribution to the EU budget towards the reduction of economic and social disparities.

Resources

See Also

Popular Treaties Topics

  • Treaties of the United Nations (UN)
  • Types of Treaties
  • International Treaties
  • Famous Treaties
  • Law of Treaties
  • Numbered Treaties

European Economic Area (EEA) in relation with International Trade

In the context of trade organizations, Christopher Mark (1993) provided the following definition of European Economic Area (EEA): A prospective free trade area including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom Objectives include establishment of a homogeneous economic area with free movement of goods, services, capital, and labor under equal competitive conditions; extension of the provisions of the EC Single Market program (EC-92) to EFTA members; and harmonization of technical standards. The EEA agreement was signed in May 1992 and is currently undergoing ratification by participants; ratification by Switzerland was rejected in a December 1992 plebiscite.

Hierarchical Display of European Economic Area

European Union > European construction > EU relations > Agreement (EU) > Association agreement (EU)
European Union > European construction > EU relations > Trade relations > Free-trade agreement
European Union > European construction > EU relations > European organisation > EFTA

European Economic Area

Concept of European Economic Area

See the dictionary definition of European Economic Area.

Characteristics of European Economic Area

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Translation of European Economic Area

Thesaurus of European Economic Area

European Union > European construction > EU relations > Agreement (EU) > Association agreement (EU) > European Economic Area
European Union > European construction > EU relations > Trade relations > Free-trade agreement > European Economic Area
European Union > European construction > EU relations > European organisation > EFTA > European Economic Area

See also

  • EEA

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