Among the highlights of EFTA‘s work was the introduction of new procedures that contributed to a significant reduction in the number of EU legal acts awaiting incorporation into the EEA Agreement. The EEA Joint Committee adopted 291 decisions incorporating 627 legal acts in 2014, more than in any year since the late 1990s.
EFTA continued its ambitious pursuit of a worldwide network of free trade agreements (FTAs), with EFTA Ministers signing a joint declaration on cooperation with the Philippines, setting the stage for the launch of free trade negotiations in 2015. They also met with representatives of Guatemala to discuss the development of closer trade relations in view of Guatemala’s forthcoming accession to the EFTA-Central America FTA, which entered into force in 2014 . The FTA with the States of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) also entered into force in 2014, and by the end of the year, EFTA’s network of preferential trade relations extended to 57 partners outside the EU through various means of engagement.
