European Economic Area (EEA)

The European Economic Area (EEA) is a region that includes all of the member states of the European Union (EU) plus three countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) – Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. The EEA agreement allows these non-EU member countries to participate in the EU’s Internal Market without a conventional EU membership.

The member countries of the EEA are:

EU Members: 

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden

EFTA Members:

Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway

Switzerland is a member of EFTA but is not included in the EEA. It has a series of bilateral agreements with the EU that allows it to participate in parts of the Internal Market.

The EEA provides the free movement of persons, goods, services, and capital within the internal market, and allows for the alignment of domestic market regulations on a broad range of areas with those of the EU. The purpose of the EEA is to extend the EU’s internal market to countries that are not in the EU, creating a homogeneous European market.