| The European Free Trade
Association (EFTA) was
established on
May 3,
1960 as an alternative for European states that did
not wish to join the
European Community. The treaty was signed on
January 4, 1960 in
Stockholm and is known as the Stockholm Convention.
Its original membership was
United Kingdom,
Denmark,
Norway,
Sweden,
Austria,
Switzerland and
Portugal.
Finland became an associate member in
1961 (it later became a full member in
1986), and
Iceland joined in
1970. The United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland joined
the European Community in
1973, and hence ceased to be EFTA members. Portugal
also left EFTA for the European Community in
1986.
Liechtenstein joined in
1991 (previously its interests in EFTA had been
represented by Switzerland). Finally, Austria, Sweden
and Finland joined the European Community in
1995 and hence ceased to be EFTA members. Thus,
today only Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and
Liechtenstein remain members of EFTA.
All of its members today except for
Switzerland are members of the
European Economic Area (EEA). The Swiss electorate
voted against Switzerland joining the EEA, but it
remains a member of EFTA, and is linked to the
European Union by bilateral agreements similar in
content to the EEA agreement.
EFTA has the following instititutions: the
Secretariat, the EFTA Surveillance Authority, the EFTA
Council and the EFTA Court.
The EFTA Surveillance Authority and the EFTA Court
are EEA institutions, and hence Switzerland does not
participate in them. The EFTA Surveillance Authority
performs the
European Commission's role as "guardian of the
treaties" for the non-EU EEA countries, while the EFTA
Court performs the
European Court of Justice's role for those
countries. The original plan for the EEA lacked the EFTA
Court or the EFTA Surveillance Authority, and instead
had the European Court of Justice and the European
Commission exercise those roles. However, during the
negotiations for the EEA agreement, the European Court
of Justice informed the
Council of the European Union by way of letter that
they considered that giving the EU institutions powers
with respect to non-EU member states would be a
violation of the treaties, and therefore the current
arrangement was developed instead.
EFTA also manages the Portugal Fund. The Portugal
Fund was established in 1975 when Portugal was still a
member of EFTA, to provide funding for the development
and reconstruction of Portugal after the end of the
fascist dictatorship. When Portugal left EFTA in 1985,
the remaining EFTA members decided to nonetheless
continue the Portugal Fund, so Portugal would continue
to benefit from it. The Fund originally took the form of
a low-interest loan from the EFTA member states to
Portugal, to the value of 100 million
US dollars. Repayment was originally to commence in
1988, but EFTA then decided to postpone the start of
repayments until
1998.
EFTA also originated the
Hallmarking Convention[?] and the
Pharmaceutical Inspection Convention[?], both of
which are open to non-EFTA states.
The EFTA Secretariat is headquartered in
Geneva, Switzerland. The EFTA Surveillance Authority
has its headquarters in
Brussels, Belgium (the same location as the
headquarters of the European Commission), while the EFTA
Court has its headquarters in Luxembourg (the same
location as the headquarters of the European Court of
Justice).
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