The Agreement creating the European
Economic Area (EEA Agreement)
was negotiated between the Community, the then Member States, and
7 member countries of the EFTA and was signed in May 1992.
Subsequently, Switzerland decided not to participate following a
referendum, and three others joined the EU. The EEA Agreement
entered into force on 1 January 1994.
The EEA was maintained because of the wish of the three remaining
countries - Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein - to participate in
the Internal Market, while not assuming the full responsibilities
of EU membership. The Agreement gives them the right to be
consulted by the Commission during the formulation of Community
legislation, but not the right to a voice in decision-making,
which is reserved exclusively for Member States. All new Community
legislation in areas covered by the EEA is integrated into the
Agreement through an EEA Joint Committee decision and subsequently
becomes part of the national legislation of the EEA EFTA States.
Through the double impact of the participation in the decision
shaping and the high level of integration of Community acquis into
their national legislation, the EEA EFTA States are, of all the
countries associated with the Union, technically the most closely
linked to the EU. Politically, however, the fact that EU
membership is not on the current agenda for any of the EEA EFTA
countries distinguishes them from other close neighbours, who have
EU membership as a declared objective.
The EEA Agreement is concerned principally with the four
fundamental pillars of the Internal Market, “the four freedoms",
i.e. freedom of movement of goods (excluding agriculture and
fisheries, which are included in the Agreement only to a very
limited extent), persons, services and capital. Horizontal
provisions relevant to these four freedoms in the areas of social
policy, consumer protection, environment, company law and
statistics complete the extended internal market. It is in these
areas that the EEA- EFTA States take over Community legislation.
As one of the primary obligations under the Agreement is to ensure
equal conditions of competition, the substantive competition rules
of the Agreement correspond to the Community acquis in this area.
This covers the rules concerning cartels, abuse of dominant
positions, merger control, state monopolies and state aid. The
Agreement also includes areas which have an impact on the
competitive position of enterprises, such as consumer protection,
environment and certain elements of company law.
In addition to the obligation to accept the Community acquis in
the fields of the four freedoms, 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 towards the reduction of economic
and social disparities.
The EEA Agreement is implemented through a set of special
institutional arrangements. There is an EEA Joint Committee, whose
main function is to adopt decisions extending Community
regulations and directives to the EEA-EFTA States. The Community
is represented by the Commission in the Joint Committee. Decisions
in the Joint Committee are taken by agreement between the
Community and the EEA-EFTA States, which have to speak with one
voice. The Joint Committee may set up sub-committees, which
prepare the decisions of the Joint Committee and where discussion
of different aspects of the Joint Committee’s work can take place.
There are currently five such sub-committees.
The EEA Council meets twice a year. Its members are the members of
the General Affairs and External Relations Council and one member
of the Government of each of the EEA-EFTA States. It is chaired on
a rotating basis by either the EU Presidency or the EEA-EFTA
Presidency.
The Agreement covers most of the substance of the EU's relations
with the EEA EFTA States. Globally, the EEA machinery runs
smoothly after ten years of operation. The updating of the
Agreement through the incorporation of new relevant Community
legislation has become a day-to-day business and thousands of
legal acts have been extended to the EEA to date.
A major challenge in 2003/2004 was to ensure that the EEA was
enlarged at the same time as the EU, so as not to disturb the good
functioning of the Internal Market. To this end, an EEA
Enlargement Agreement was negotiated between the Community and its
Member States, the EEA EFTA States and the Acceding Countries. The
EEA Enlargement Agreement came into force on 1 May 2004, thus
allowing for the simultaneous enlargement of the EU and the EEA.
Most of the elements of the EEA Enlargement Agreement are
technical adaptations, but one of the major substantial results of
the enlargement negotiations was a ten-fold increase in the
financial contribution of the EEA EFTA States, in particular
Norway, to social and economic cohesion in the Internal Market
(1167 M€ over five years, 600 M€ from all three EEA EFTA States
and 567 M€ as a bilateral Norwegian contribution). Another element
of the EEA Enlargement Agreement was that the Community would open
additional quotas for certain marine and agricultural products
from the EEA EFTA States.
Similar enlargement negotiations took place in 2006/2007 to ensure
that Bulgaria and Romania also could become contracting parties to
the EEA upon joining the EU. The main result of these negotiations
was that for the duration of the current EEA and Norwegian
financial mechanisms, Bulgaria will receive 40.5 M€ and Romania
98.5 M€ in financial contributions
Latest update: October 2007 |