European Free Trade Area

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EU member states EFTA member states CEFTA member states

EFTA member states CEFTA member states former member states of EFTA, CEFTA or BAFTA

Light Blue EU members
Yellow EU candidates
Green EFTA members
Dark Blue CEFTRA
Purple possible free trade Zones with EU

After the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC), three other free trade areas were created in Europe, partly as a reaction to the ECSC and EEC:

European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
Baltic Free Trade Area (BAFTA)
Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA)

ECSC and EEC later merged into European Communities, now a part of the European Union. As membership in EU and its predecessors was seen as more attractive, most EFTA, BAFTA and CEFTA states have quit their respective blocs to join the EU. BAFTA is now defunct due to all three members joining the EU, and CEFTA's current membership all joined that group quite recently, the older members now being in the EU as well. The countries of CEFTA are slated to become the next to join. Only EFTA is still seen as having a longer-term future, since its remaining members do not currently intend to join the EU. Instead, most of them participate in the EU common market through the European Economic Area (EEA).

[edit] EFTR Enlargement

On 26 May the EU is set to start talks on expansion further east. Talks are set to start with a proposed enlargement of the free trade area with the EU, with countries Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine.^[1]^[2]