EU, EEA, EFTA and Schengen Area countries (2024)

FAQs

What countries are in the EU EEA EFTA and Schengen? ›

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is an intergovernmental organisation of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement is an international agreement enabling among others the extension of parts of the EU's single market to Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.

EEA stands for European Economic Area. The EEA aims to strengthen trade and economic relations between each of the EEA countries. There are 30 EEA countries: The 27 EU Member States.

EEA/EFTA citizens are from: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania and the United Kingdom are EU states that are not, or not yet, part of the Schengen area. This means that a flight from one of these states to a Schengen state is regarded as an external flight and is subject to border checks.

Germany, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland have all acceded to the Schengen Agreement and are ...

Passports of the EFTA member states are passports issued by the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member states Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. EFTA is in this article used as a common name for these countries.

Bulgaria and Romania, the newest members having joined on 31 March 2024, only have air and maritime borders open, with land border controls remaining in place pending agreement to lift them. The only EU member states that are not part of the Schengen Area are Cyprus and Ireland.

A Swiss referendum held on 6 December 1992 rejected EEA membership. As a consequence, the Swiss Government suspended negotiations for EU accession until further notice.

Why is Norway not a member of the EU? ›

A major issue for Norway is its fishing resources, which are a significant part of the national economy and which would come under the Common Fisheries Policy if Norway were to accede to the EU. Norway has high GNP per capita, and would have to pay a high membership fee.

Schengen is not a part of the EEA Agreement. However, all of the four EFTA States participate in Schengen and Dublin through bilateral agreements. They all apply the provisions of the relevant Acquis. The EEA Treaty is a commercial treaty and differs from the EU Treaties in certain key respects.

Meanwhile, in 1973, Denmark and the UK joined the EU; in 1986, Portugal joined the EU, and, in 1995, Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the EU, consequently leaving EFTA. EFTA currently has 4 member countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

EU citizenship is granted automatically to anyone who holds the nationality of an EU country. Some rights and benefits derive from national law, and these may differ from country to country. Other rights derive from EU law and are therefore the same in all EU countries.

The organization operates in parallel with the European Union (EU), and all four member states participate in the European Single Market and are part of the Schengen Area. They are not, however, party to the European Union Customs Union.