European Economic Area: formation, participants and relations with the Eurasian Economic Community

The European Economic Area (or EEA) was established in the early 1990s. The idea of uniting Europe literally soared in the air and the minds of prominent politicians of that time since the 1920s. The series of conflicts pushed the actual creation of the union in the sphere of the economy for a rather long period. But the unification processes were largely activated immediately after the Second World War. Today, the EEA is a separate sector in the world economy, but in many respects inferior to the Eurasian Economic Community (Eurasian Economic Community).

History of the formation of the economic union

The creation of the European Economic Area is closely connected with the formation of the European Union as a whole. The formation of the EU is legally enshrined in the 1992 legal agreement. But the creation of the European Union and the economic zone was preceded by several more disunited organizations and concepts of unification voiced by prominent politicians, sociologists and economists of the early and mid-twentieth century.

So, back in the early 1920s the word "United States of Europe" appeared in the German press. A year later, the Austrian philosopher advocates the creation of a pan-European organization, and one of the high-ranking French ministers in 1929 calls on citizens and state apparatus to join the European Federal Union.

In the post-war years, one after another, new alliances and associations are emerging: the Movement for a Unified Europe, the European Paying Union and the European Union, Euroatom, the European Free Trade Association and the European Economic Community, which are the forerunners of the modern EEA. At the same time, all organizations have little connection with each other, none of them unites all European countries.

I came to the common system a little later, but it was not perfect either. By the 1960s, Europe has been united by a common market and agricultural policy, and in the higher circles they are starting to form a monetary union and economic reorganization. Plans for politicians are grandiose, but to this day the EEA is still not such an influential organization to regulate all aspects of economic relations between the participating countries.

Activities of the EEA and participating countries

To date, the European Economic Area has 28 EU countries, as well as Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland - three out of four (+ Switzerland) members of the European Free Trade Association. Switzerland does not enter the EEA legally, but the country has all the rights and obligations of the member of the European Economic Area. The participating countries are also complemented by San Marino, Andorra, Monaco and the Vatican, which de jure are not members of the union, but due to association with Spain, Italy and France are actually located in the EEA territory. The list of participants has undergone little change since the establishment of the organization in 1992 and the actual start of work in 1994.

Thus, the European Economic Area includes:

• EU countries: Great Britain, Greece, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, France, Finland Croatia, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Estonia;
• Three states of the Free Trade Association: Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland;
• Andorra, the Vatican, Monaco and San Marino, which are part of the EEA only territorially, do not have the rights and obligations of the participating countries (with the exception of the right of citizens of these states to work in some EU countries).

The organization's activities are aimed at the formation and maintenance of a common market, which provides for: free trade and provision of services, free movement of financial capital and resources (including labor). The legislation of the states of the European Economic Area is brought to the general in matters of ecology, trade, social policy, regulation of the work of legal entities and individuals, and statistics.

EEZ and Russia, EurAsEC

The European Economic Area for a number of reasons is a less integrated entity than the EurAsEC in conjunction with the Customs Union and the CACO (Central Asian Countries) Cooperation Organization.

Freedom of economic cooperation and the establishment of trade relations between the participants is the main goal that the European Economic Area sets. Russia, in alliance with Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (between 2006 and 2008), as well as the observer countries that Ukraine, Moldova and Armenia have at various times, forms common customs borders and generates common tariffs, Prices and foreign economic policy.

The potential of EurAsEC is objectively more significant than the European Economic Area. Especially the statement refers to raw materials, natural resources and the demographic factor. Prospects for further development of the Eurasian Economic Community and the Customs Union, as well as the CACO are much more optimistic than the future of the European organization. The European Economic Area is a closed entity, whereas the Eurasian Economic Community is an open organization that attracts the interest of many states (not just the post-Soviet space).