What is the Norway model / EEA / EFTA?

(And why it isn’t Brexit)

    Brexit wrecker MP is misinformed, again

Another simple explainer from the Facts4EU.Org Team

Every six months or so, the question of membership of the ‘EEA’ and 'EFTA' and using ‘the Norway model’ is raised as a possible route to Brexit. Yesterday it was the turn of former minister Nick Boles MP, in an interview with the excellent Andrew Neil on the BBC.

This is important because it’s Mr Boles who will be proposing a wrecking motion on Monday, to stop any prospect of leaving the EU cleanly on WTO terms.

Mr Neil quoted Mr Boles from October 2016 when he dismissed the notion of a Norway-style arrangement. Mr Boles said he hadn’t been in possession of all the facts then. He went on say that he is now better informed.

Er, no. He’s not. He was – by his own admission – ignorant in 2016. Now he’s both ignorant and misinformed.

So what is the whole EEA / EFTA / Norway thing?

We look at some key questions.

1.  What is the EEA?

Norway Pop'n: 5.2 million 1/2 size of London	Iceland Pop'n: 334,000 1/4 the size of Glasgow	Liechtenstein Pop'n: 37,000 1/14th the size of Leicester

“The European Economic Area (EEA) unites the [27] EU Member States and the 3 EEA EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) into an Internal Market governed by the same basic rules.

“These rules aim to enable goods, services, capital, and persons to move freely about the EEA in an open and competitive environment, a concept referred to as the four freedoms.”

                - EFTA website

The European Economic Area (EEA) was set up in 1994 to extend the EU’s provisions on its internal market to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. Switzerland is a member of EFTA but does not take part in the EEA.

The EEA consists of the 28 EU countries, plus 3 non-EU countries of Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland. That’s 31 countries in total, but just 3 are not full members of the EU.

The UK is already member of the EEA by virtue of being a member of the EU.

2.  What is EFTA?

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) consists of 4 countries: The 3 EEA countries of Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, plus Switzerland. The UK was a founder member in 1960, when EFTA was established. EFTA describes itself as:

“a framework for the liberalisation of trade in goods amongst its Member States” and “an economic counterbalance to the more politically driven European Economic Community (EEC).”

                - EFTA

As EFTA countries like the UK started joining the EU, they left EFTA, which is why it now contains only 4 countries.

Over the decades EFTA has become more like the EU, with its own court adopting the rulings of the ECJ. EFTA’s countries are all members of the EEA (see below) except Switzerland.

3.  Membership of the EEA means living under EU laws

Both Remainers and ‘soft’ Brexiteers have consistently spread the myth that if the UK left the EU but stayed in the EEA and also joined EFTA, then it would have escaped from the binding decisions of the EU’s Court of Justice (ECJ).

In theory it’s true that the EFTA court may shadow the ECJ and its decisions are only ‘advisory’, but the reality is very different.

Here is the Chef de Cabinet of the EFTA Court in Luxembourg, Michael-James Clifton, writing in a personal capacity and stating that EFTA’s ‘Surveillance Authority’ must :

“ensure that the EEA/EFTA States live up to their obligations under the EEA Agreement by fully, correctly and timely transposing the common Internal Market rules (the acquis communautaire) into their domestic legal order and by applying these rules correctly.”

He goes on to say:

“The EFTA Court was founded in 1994 and shall follow relevant ECJ rulings handed down prior to the date of signature of the EEA Agreement (2 May 1992). This aimed at ensuring that from the outset the Single Market playing field was perfectly flat. The EFTA Court is required also to pay ‘due account’ to all subsequent relevant ECJ jurisprudence.

“In practice, the EFTA Court makes no distinction between the two and pays equal regard to post 1994 ECJ case-law.”

EFTA is governed by the EFTA Surveillance Authority and the EFTA Court. Whilst the EFTA Court is ostensibly separate from the EU’s European Court of Justice (ECJ), in practice it adopts its rulings.

4.  Does EEA membership stop freedom of movement?

Put simply, no it doesn't.

Membership of the EEA means membership of the EU's Single Market, which means accepting the four freedoms including the freedom of movement of people.

Some have argued that there is an emergency opt-out clause contained within the EEA agreement, whereby a country can suspend freedom of movement. This is wholly disingenuous. This was drawn up for little Liechtenstein, a 'country' of only 40,000 people. And it is for emergency use only. Any idea that this clause could be used by the UK to suspend permanently the obligation for freedom of movement of citizens from the UK is completely implausible.

5.  Does a Norway-style agreement include membership of the Single Market and Customs Union?

A Norway-style agreement automatically means membership of the Single Market, with all its hundreds of thousands of rules applying to all UK businesses, whether they trade with the EU or not.

Norway is not part of the Customs Union, but Nick Boles MP (who will launch the motion on Monday in Parliament to prevent the UK exiting on WTO terms) says we must add this, to acquiesce to the EU's demands over the Northern Ireland border.

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