The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is an intergovernmental organisation set up for the promotion of free trade and economic integration to the benefit of its four Member States: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland.
The Association manages the EFTA Convention; EFTA’s worldwide network of free trade and partnership agreements, and the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement.
Read more...
During their 14th round of negotiations, held from 26 to 28 October 2016 in Geneva, delegations from the EFTA States and India continued talks towards a comprehensive free trade agreement.
The EFTA Standing Committee and the EEA Joint Committee met in Brussels on 27 and 28 October 2016 respectively. The Joint Committee adopted nine decisions incorporating ten EU legal acts into the EEA Agreement.
The share of merchandise exports covered by EFTA’s free trade agreements (FTAs) rose from 3.0% of the total exports of its Member States in 2006 to 12.4% in 2015, which clearly indicates the substantial and growing contribution made by the FTAs. A third of the increase is due to the higher growth rate of trade with FTA partners and the remainder is due to the addition of new FTA partners. In the case of Switzerland, the share rose from 4.2% to 15.6%, for Norway from 1.6% to 6.0%, and for Iceland the share of exports to EFTA´s FTA partners increased more than tenfold over the same period, from 0.3% to 3.6%.
The biannual introductory seminar on the EEA will take place on Tuesday 7 February 2017 at the EFTA Secretariat's premises in Brussels.
This second edition of the Handbook on the EEA EFTA procedures for incorporating EU acts into the EEA Agreement reflects changes made following the 2016 review, namely a reduction in the number of forms used for the processing of acts, and an updated list of categories of acts subject to the fast-track procedure. These changes apply from today, 24 October 2016.
55th Annual Report of the European Free Trade Association, 2015. The report is only available in electronic PDF format.
This publication contains information on EFTA's activities and institutional framework, as well as a range of statistics on EFTA and its Member States. The publication is avaliable in paper or electronic pdf format.
EFTA Bulletin - July 2015
This edition of the EFTA Bulletin looks at the EEA Agreement in historical perspective, explains how EU legal acts are incorporated into the Agreement and outlines current and future challenges of the EEA. The publication is avaliable in paper or electronic form.
This two-page factsheet gives a general overview of the role and tasks of the European Free Trade Association.
Handbook on EEA EFTA procedures – 2nd edition
EFTA Bulletin - October 2016.
This second edition of the Handbook on the EEA EFTA procedures for incorporating EU acts into the EEA Agreement reflects changes made following the 2016 review, namely a reduction of the number of forms used for the processing of acts, and an updated list of categories of acts subject to the fast-track procedure. These changes apply from 24 October 2016.
EFTA Bulletin - December 2013.
This edition of the EFTA Bulletin looks at EFTA's free trade relations with partner countries outside the European Union. The publication is avaliable in paper or electronic form in PDF format for PCs and laptops, as well as in ePUB format for tablets and smartphones.
