Talk:European Economic Area

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Membership question: are the '2004' EU memebers, members of the EEA? are the 2007 candidates? I've found this via a google search:

... (the EEA) currently has 31 member countries. These are the 15 EU Member States; Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, which are members of the European Economic Area; and the 13 EU accession and candidate countries, namely Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, the Slovak Republic and Turkey (from this month). The EEA is the first EU body to take in the accession countries. Negotiations on EEA membership are also under way with Switzerland.

This is wrong, EU candidates are not members of EEA, the EEA is not a EU body and Switzerland is not seeking to join the EEA as far as I know. Besides, this text contradicts itself as it claims that 31 countries are EEA members but also states (correct at the time it was written) that the EEA is EU15+IS+NO+LI. --Bjarki 21:01, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
You are wrong. the newest 10 EU members have negotiated their EEA membership before joining the EU and they have joined both the EEA and EU at the same time (I can find a link somewhere about this later).Alinor 10:02, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
Yes, that's what I said. EU candidates are not EEA members. --Bjarki 13:13, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Green circle around Liechtenstein?

Since the EEA has only 3 members, it might be nice to put a clear green circle around Liechtenstein? Now looking at the map, I wouldn't know they were one of the 3. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.157.94.3 (talk) 20:35, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] No financial burden

There is an objectionable phrase here in my opinion, the article states that "EEA members have no financial burden" but the countries do contribute to the EU budget - Norway for instance contributes over 200 million Euros a year to the budget. Personally I think it's a bit misleading.

[edit] Map: Cyprus and Malta

Cyprus and Malta are missing on the map of EEA countries. MaartenVidal 01:07, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Map: Your map and maplabel sucks

The map is not clear. If you want to present the "Members of the EEA", then present it on a map, do not mix them with another "European Union" stuff. The map is complicated to read, and the label is confusing.

Thank you for the constructive comment. How exactly does the map and the label confuse you? --Bjarki 12:32, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] EEA members

I have made a minor edit to remove the previous suggestion that the EU might itself be a member of the EEA. The EU does not have legal personality, and cannot itself accede to any treaty. Only the member states can. Pearcedh 15:23, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

It is true. Technically it is the European Community which is a member in its own capacity. For most people this is the same thing. --Bjarki 21:39, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
So who's a member of the EEA?
NO, IS and LI are.
The EC is.
Are any EU countries members themselves, or do they act as part of the EC in terms of EEA membership? What about SE, FI and AT, who joined the EEA one year before joining EU? Does the EEA situation look any different for those three countries than for the other EU countries? (Stefan2 20:16, 17 April 2007 (UTC))
Each EU country is a member by itself, so there are 30 member countries (27+3) as well as the EC which is a member itself. --Bjarki 20:28, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Acronyms

I just want to say that the list of acronyms in the opening paragraph is BEAUTIFUL! Rock on! Zweifel 08:13, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

I always intended to kill that, thanks for the reminder. --Bjarki 00:43, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] History section?

Maybe it would be useful to have a history section on the EEA?

The EEA was created on 1994-01-01, consisting of the EC + SE, FI, AT, NO and IS (treaty signed 1992-05-02, Swiss referendum 1992-12-06, these dates according to Swedish Wikipedia).

SE, FI and AT joined the EU on 1995-01-01, thus superseeding the EEA treaty.

LI joined at a later point (1995-05-01 according to German Wikipedia).

When 10 countries joined the EU in 2004, the EEA treaty had to be renegotiated, and the new treaty was decided upon on 2004-01-29 in Norway (according to Norwegian Wikipedia).

More can probably be mentioned. (58.188.97.134 18:38, 7 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Map

Isn't the map wrong? It states that Svalbard (part of Norway) is part of the EEA, but as far as I know, it isn't, because the EEA treaty is incompatible with the Svalbard Treaty (mainly on the free movement of people chapter: anyone, including non-EEA citizens, may move to Svalbard and start working there without the need for visas or permits). (Stefan2 16:28, 5 August 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Jersey and Guernsey

Although part of the UK, are these islands included in the EEA? I have heard otherwise. Kelvingreen (talk) 14:34, 10 April 2008 (UTC)