To mark the 30th anniversary of the agreement establishing the European Economic Area (EEA), on Tuesday 28 May the Member States of the European Union and the EFTA-EEA countries (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) reaffirmed their desire to extend their “steadfast cooperation” within the world’s largest common market.
This cooperation will continue in areas such as fair and sustainable international trade, energy transition, the fight against climate change, innovation, education, social policies and health, emphasise the thirty countries in a joint declaration adopted at the end of the EEA Council meeting.
At a conference on the sidelines of the event, the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Espen Barth Eide, stressed the EEA’s importance at a time when trade is deteriorating due to the crisis in multilateralism, particularly within the WTO. “We have to trade more with each other because world trade is declining”, he stressed.
Several participants, including the foreign ministers of Belgium, Hadja Lahbib, Iceland, Þórdís Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir, and Liechtenstein, Dominique Hasler, also stressed the importance of the community of values that unites the thirty countries.
Author of a report on the single market’s future (see EUROPE 13393/3), former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta suggested that the EFTA-EEA countries were the best argument in favour of the internal market to offer the citizens of EU countries. He advocated creating a “5th freedom of movement”, that of “knowledge”. In his view, the following markets also need further integration: “telecommunications, energy and financial services“.
See the EEA Council statement: https://aeur.eu/f/ceg (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)