What is efta

Need help? Contact us. Table of Contents. What is EFTA? Short Historical Overview p. Also interesting for you: International Journal of Procedural Law.

Scherpe , Claire Fenton-Glynn The administrative structure of EFTA is simple and was laid down by the original convention with meetings at the Ministerial level usually being held twice yearly and meetings at the official level take place regularly. With EFTA having no supranational powers decisions are implemented by the individual governments. Historical Archives of the European Union.

Historical Archives of the European Union Database. Rate your Experience. The aim of the Stockholm Convention was to reduce tariffs between member states in phases, as in the EEC, a process completed in Unlike the EEC, EFTA did not have a common external tariff, common policies or any supranational institutions, as Britain in particular wanted to avoid any loss of sovereignty. Already during the negotiations of the Maudling Committee concerning a more "far-reaching European free trade area, special contacts had been created between the UK, the three Scandinavian countries, Austria and Switzerland.

After the collapse of the negotiations it was a natural progression for these countries to establish among themselves a Free Trade Area. EFTA was created to pursue tariff and trade control bargaining with the Common Market, even if the difference in nature of the two institutions had little significant for their respective tariffs.

Even from the outset EFTA appeared as an ad hoc arrangement as geographically the countries were spread out, forming an usual core area to which were added Austria and Switzerland and Portugal to the West. Initially considered an economic unity, each of the seven countries apart from Portugal had closer ties to the Common Market as a whole to any of the EFTA countries. As for population, almost two-thirds of the Associations population lived in the UK.

Britain was the main loser, despite it being her brainchild. Her interest from the outset was in the other Six. Economically, the greatest beneficiaries were the smaller countries. So while the economic success of EFTA was limited.

A second transfer reached Florence in October with a further deposit of audio-visual material arriving in November For the researcher in the study of free trade and European integration this fonds is a must. The material is available in both bound volumes and in file format. The basic unit of description is of the contents of each volume. The volumes represent and mirror the organisational divisions of EFTA itself.

The idea for EFTA came with the perceived need to counterbalance the EEC in the formation of a Free Trade arrangement which would however work in partnership with the Six to reach its objectives.