The Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA Agreement) is based on:

• the primary legislation of the European Union developed over the last 40 years (= prohibition of discrimination, four freedoms, common competition rules, and flanking and horizontal policies)
• and the succeeding secondary legislation, the acquis communautaire (= EEA-relevant EU legal acts adopted by the EU institutions on a continuing basis).

Accordingly, a large part of the EEA Agreement is identical with the corresponding provisions concerning the four freedoms as laid down in the EEC Treaty signed in Rome in 1957.

The EEA Agreement consists of the main agreement with 129 articles, 22 annexes , and 50 protocols, as well as the EEA-relevant EU legal acts (directives, regulations, decisions, etc.) to which they refer. In 2008, a total of 218 EU legal acts were incorporated into the EEA Agreement (source: 48th Annual Report of the European Free Trade Association 2008, p. 13 ). The total number of EU legal acts incorporated into the EEA Agreement was 5,328 as of the end of 2008. By comparison, the EEA Agreement included approximately 1,500 EU legal acts in 1992.

The EEA Agreement does not cover the common tax policy or the common agricultural and fisheries polices of the EU. Since the EEA is not a customs union, trade policy in relation to third countries is also not covered by the Agreement.

Useful Links
EEA Agreement (PDF, 2.31 MB)

Responsibility for content lies with the EEA Coordination Unit .