The Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA), which entered into force on 1 January 1994, brings together the 27 EU Members and the three EFTA countries* — Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway — in a single internal market, referred to as the “Internal Market.”
The Association is responsible for the management of:
The EFTA Convention, which forms the legal basis of the organisation and governs free trade relations between the EFTA States;
EFTA’s worldwide network of free trade and partnership agreements;
The European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement, which enables three of the four EFTA Member States (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) to participate in the EU’s Internal Market.
The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) was founded in 1960 on the premise of free trade as means of achieving growth and prosperity amongst its Member States as well as promoting closer economic co-operation between the Western European countries. Furthermore, the EFTA countries wished to contribute to the expansion of trade in the world at large.