What is your point, Contrex? Switzerland is not in the EEA but benefits from the same free movement legislation.
Switzerland took part in negotiating the European Economic Area agreement with the European Union. It signed the agreement on 2 May 1992, and submitted an application for accession to the EU on 20 May 1992. However, a Swiss referendum held on 6 December 1992 rejected EEA membership. As a consequence, the Swiss government decided to suspend negotiations for EU accession until further notice.
Its application remains open.In 1994, Switzerland and the EU started negotiations about a special relationship outside the EEA or full membership framework. Switzerland wanted to safeguard the economic integration with the EU that the EEA treaty would have permitted, while purging the relationship of the points of contention that had led to the people rejecting the referendum. Swiss politicians stressed the bilateral nature of these negotiations, where negotiations were conducted between two equal partners and not between 16 or 28, as is the case for EU treaty negotiations.
These negotiations resulted in a total of ten treaties, negotiated in two phases, the sum of which makes a large share of EU law applicable to Switzerland.
From the perspective of the EU, the treaties largely contain the same content as the EEA treaties, making Switzerland a virtual member of the EEA or even the EU. Most EU law applies universally throughout the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, providing most of the benefits of the free movement of people, goods, services and capital that full member states enjoy. Switzerland pays into the EU budget and extended the bilateral treaties to the new EU member states, just like full members did, yet people had to decide upon this in a referendum.
