European Free Trade Association

Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, which is the whole of the roster since 1 January 1995. Of the seven states that signed the convention at Stockholm in 1960, only Norway and Switzerland are still in it: Denmark and the United Kingdom left in 1973, Portugal in 1986, and Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995, each of them on joining the European Communities or the European Union.

No, and the two lists do not match. EFTA is a free trade area among the 4 members here, governed by the convention signed at Vaduz on 21 June 2001. The European Economic Area extends the European Union single market to Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway alongside the Union's own member states, under an agreement signed at Porto on 2 May 1992. Switzerland belongs to the first and not the second.

Because ratification was put to a vote and lost. Switzerland signed the Agreement on the European Economic Area, and the referendum of 6 December 1992 rejected it by 50.3%, with sixteen cantons against and seven in favour. Access to the single market was then built up in sectoral treaties instead, a first package signed on 21 June 1999 and a second on 26 October 2004. The EFTA Surveillance Authority and the EFTA Court have no jurisdiction over Switzerland as a result.

Article 56 of the convention lets any state accede provided the EFTA Council decides to approve its accession, on the terms and conditions that decision sets out, after which the instrument of accession is deposited with the depositary. There is no list of criteria written into the text and no waiting period. Article 57 sets the exit at twelve months of notice in writing.

Not by itself. The convention covers trade between the members and the free trade agreements the group negotiates jointly with countries outside Europe. Single market access rests on separate instruments: the Agreement on the European Economic Area for Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, and the sectoral treaties for Switzerland. A state could in principle accede to the convention and take neither.

Only in part. Processed agricultural products are covered by the convention, and basic agricultural products are largely left to bilateral agreements between individual members rather than handled by the text itself. The European Economic Area draws a comparable line on the other side: it does not extend the European Union's common agricultural and fisheries policies to the states that belong to it from this group.