Norway reached a trade agreement with the Community following the referendum results. This trade agreement remained in force until Norway entered the European Economic Area on 1 January 1994. [20] These are countries that are neither EU nor EFTA members, which means that a country can become a member of the EEA without being a member of the EU or EFTA? The original EEA agreement was between the EU and EFTA, but I could not find a provision there that a country must be a member of the EU or EFTA in order to join the EEA. Is it possible to join the EEA for a third country (non-EU and non-EFTA)? The clarification of this issue would be great. –FreedonNadd (conversation) 23:12, 25 January 2013 (UTC) When the EEA was established in 1994, several developments hampered its credibility. First, Switzerland rejected the EEA agreement in a national referendum on 6 December 1992, hampering the full integration of the EU and EFTA into the EEA. In addition, Austria had applied for full membership of the EEC in 1989, followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland between 1991 and 1992 (Norway`s accession to the EU was rejected by referendum, with Switzerland rejecting the EU`s request after the EEA agreement was rejected by referendum). The fall of the Iron Curtain has made the EU less reluctant to accept these advanced countries as member states, as it would reduce the pressure on the EU budget if the former socialist countries of Central Europe join. [15] Given that all parties – the UK, EU and EFTA states – agree that we are bound by the EEA`s obligations and that we are “treated” as an EEA state, this is a practical and legally operational treaty this year. We are at least an “EEA participant” and we therefore appear on the map that covers the EEA agreement. – Before that, an unsigned remark, which was added on 210.84.24.164 (Interview) 04:02, 2 February 2020 (UTC), the Geneva headquarters is responsible for the management and negotiation of free trade agreements with third countries and supports the EFTA Council. In November 2012, after the Council of the European Union requested an assessment of the EU`s relations with the European micro-sovereign states of Andorra, Monaco and San Marino, which they described as “fragmented”,[51] the European Commission published a report outlining possible options for their integration into the EU.
[52] Unlike Liechtenstein, which is a member of the EEA through EFTA and the Schengen agreements, relations with these three states are based on a set of agreements covering specific issues. The report examined four alternatives to the current situation: 1) a sectoral approach with separate agreements with each state covering a comprehensive political area, 2) a comprehensive and multilateral framework agreement (FAA) with the three countries, 3) membership of the EEA and 4) EU membership. The Commission argued that the sectoral approach does not address the major problems and is still unnecessarily complicated, while EU membership has been rejected in the near future because “the EU institutions are not suitable for the accession of these small countries”. The other options, EEA membership and an FAA with the States, proved feasible and were recommended by the Commission. The separation agreement is the agreement between Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Kingdom of Norway and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland following the UK`s withdrawal from the European Union, the EEA Agreement and other applicable agreements between the United Kingdom and the EEA-EFTA states under the United Kingdom`s membership of the European Union. The EFTA Court of Justice or the EFTA Supervisory Authority did not have the original plan for the EEA: the European Court of Justice and the European Commission should carry out these tasks.