The Process of Incorporating EU Acts into the EEA Agreement

Abstract

The EEA Agreement allows the EFTA States Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to participate fully in the Internal Market. The objective of the EEA Agreement is to establish a dynamic and homogeneous EEA based on common rules. To ensure this, new EU acts are continuously incorporated into the EEA Agreement. This article consists of six Parts. After a short introduction in Part I, Part II explains the basic features of the EEA Agreement. Part III describes the process leading up to decisions by the EEA Joint Committee to incorporate new EU acts, explai‐ ning that each of the acts have gone through a thorough process in several steps involving the EFTA Secretariat, the EFTA States, the European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS), and in certain cases also the Euro‐ pean Council. Part IV explains in more detail the decisions by the EEA Joint Committee, and Part V addresses the entry into force of such decisions. Part VI contains the conclusions.