Enlargement negotiations expand to EEA, January 2003

Having decided that 10 countries will be joining the European Union in 2004, the EU has now opened negotiations aimed at enabling the members-in-waiting to join the 18-member European Economic Area (EEA).

The EEA Agreement entered into force on 1 January 1994 - 12 months after the Single Market officially opened. The Agreement gives the members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) access to the Single Market, without having to be members of the EU. From having had seven members when the Agreement was signed in 1992, there are now just three EFTA states participating in the EEA (known as the EEA-EFTA states; Austria, Finland and Sweden subsequently joined the EU and Switzerland decided not to proceed with the agreement).

The EEA members - Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway - have adopted a wide range of EU legislation, but do not have any say in the decision-making process which leads to legislation being adopted. The EEA Agreement is based around the free movement of goods, people, services and capital (the Single Market concept of the 'four freedoms'), together with additional legislation in areas such as social policy, consumer protection and the environment,

The Agreement operates on the basis of a Joint Committee, which oversees the extension of EU law to the EEA-EFTA states. The European Commission represents the Union's interests on the Joint Committee and is the EU institution charged with managing the new round of negotiations.

On 9 January, the EEA members - Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway - met representatives of the 15 EU Member States and the 10 Acceding Countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) to start negotiations which should lead to the 10 joining the European Economic Area.(Members of the EU are required by Article 128 of the EEA Agreement to apply for EEA membership).

The negotiations will focus primarily on the financial contributions of the EEA-EFTA countries, which the EU wants them to increase. The three currently make a number of contributions to the Union's budget, based on:

• participation in EU initiatives including those concerning research and development, the environment, education, social policy, consumer protection, small and medium-sized enterprises, tourism, the audio-visual sector and civil protection.

• programmes aimed at reducing economic and social disparities (€ 119.6m in 1999-2003).

Commenting on the proposed increase in contributions, External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said: 'The huge potential of the enlarged single market would not be possible without financial support to allow less affluent countries to cope with the full force of free competition. It is only reasonable that all who benefit from that market, including Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, should share the costs'. (Enlargement will add some 75 million consumers to the Single Market).

Other issues to be tackled include: whether EEA-EFTA countries will adopt the transition periods agreed in the Act of Accession between the EU and future Member States; EEA-EFTA countries' loss of free trade access to fish and marine products; an increase in EU quotas for agricultural products, to reflect the rise in the EU population.

For their part, EFTA participants emphasised that the talks should not try to renegotiate the EEA Agreement. The negotiations should be concluded by April 2003.

Links:
European Commission:
	09.01.03:	European Economic Area: launch of Enlargement Negotiations [IP/03/25]
	The European Economic Area (EEA)
EFTA Secretariat:
	Homepage
	EEA enlargement negotiations launched

Eric Davies
Researcher,
Compiled: Monday, 13 January 2003

The ten candidate countries set to join the EU in 2004 may also join the European Economic Area after negotiations began on 9 January 2003.