Central European Free Trade Agreement

Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA)
Map members
Official languages Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Romanian, and Serbian
Type Trade agreement
Member states  Albania
 Bosnia and Herzegovina
 Croatia
 Macedonia
 Moldova
 Montenegro
 Serbia
UNMIK-Kosovo
Leaders
 -  Chair in Office UNMIK-Kosovo
 -  Secretary-General Renata Vitez
Establishment
 -  Signed 21 December 1992 
Area
 -  Total 309,125 km2 
119,354 sq mi 
Population
 -  2007 estimate 30,936,824 
 -  Density 100.07/km2 
259.2/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2007 (IMF) estimate
 -  Total $236.6 billion 
 -  Per capita 7,649 
Currency Albanian Lek, Bosnia and Herzegovina konvertibilna marka, Croatian kuna, Euro, Macedonian denar, Moldovan leu, Serbian dinar (ALL, BAM, HRK, EUR, MKD, MDL, RSD)
Time zone CET / EET (UTC+1 / +2)
 -  Summer (DST) CEST / EEST (UTC+2 / +3)
CEFTA history
  CEFTA member states
  EU member states

1992
– Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia)

2003
– Slovenia joined in 1996, Romania in 1997, Bulgaria in 1999 and Croatia in 2003.

2007
– Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia have joined the EU in 2004, followed by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 and thus left CEFTA.
– Macedonia joined in 2006, followed by Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, and UNMIK Kosovo.[a]

The Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) is a trade agreement between non-EU countries in Southeast Europe.

Contents

Members

As of 1 May 2007, the parties of the CEFTA agreement are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and UNMIK on behalf of Kosovo.[a]

Former parties are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Their CEFTA membership ended when they joined the EU. Croatia is set to join the EU in 2013.

Parties of agreement joined left
 Poland 1992 2004
 Hungary 1992 2004
 Czechoslovakia
(1992 only)		  Czech Republic (from 1993) 1992 2004
 Slovakia (from 1993) 2004
 Slovenia 1996 2004
 Romania 1997 2007
 Bulgaria 1999 2007
 Croatia 2003 2013
 Macedonia 2006 —
 Albania 2007 —
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2007 —
 Moldova 2007 —
 Montenegro 2007 —
 Serbia 2007 —
UNMIK-Kosovo 2007 —

Membership criteria

Former Poznań Declaration criteria:

Current criteria since Zagreb meeting in 2005:

Current members

Flag State Accession Population Area (km²) Capital GDP in millions (PPP)[1] GDP per capita (PPP)[2]
Albania 02007-01-01 1 January 2007 &100000000036197780000003,619,778 &1000000000002874800000028,748 Tirana 22,823 7,163
Bosnia and Herzegovina 02007-01-01 1 January 2007 &100000000045903100000004,590,310 &1000000000005120900000051,209 Sarajevo 31,492 8,095
Croatia 02003-01-01 1 January 2003 &100000000044915430000004,491,543 &1000000000005654200000056,542 Zagreb 78,539 17,703
Macedonia 02006-01-01 1 January 2006 &100000000020613150000002,061,315 &1000000000002533300000025,333 Skopje 18,902 9,170
Moldova 02007-01-01 1 January 2007 &100000000043244500000004,324,450 &1000000000003384300000033,843 Chişinău 10,141 2,842
Montenegro 02007-01-01 1 January 2007 &10000000000678177000000678,177 &1000000000001402600000014,026 Podgorica 6,439 10,286
Serbia 02007-01-01 1 January 2007 &100000000074000000000007,400,000 &1000000000008836100000088,361 Belgrade 80,602 12,000
UNMIK-Kosovo 02007-01-01 1 January 2007 &100000000018048380000001,804,838 &1000000000001090800000010,908 Pristina 4,000 2,300

History

Original agreement

Original CEFTA agreement was signed by Visegrád Group countries, that is by Poland, Hungary and Czech and Slovak republics (at the time parts of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic) on 21 December 1992 in Kraków, Poland. It entered into force since July 1994. Through CEFTA, participating countries hoped to mobilize efforts to integrate Western European institutions and through this, to join European political, economic, security and legal systems, thereby consolidating democracy and free-market economics.

The agreement was amended by the agreements signed on 11 September 1995 in Brno and on 4 July 2003 in Bled.

Slovenia joined CEFTA in 1996, Romania in 1997, Bulgaria in 1999, Croatia in 2003 and Macedonia in 2006.

CEFTA 2006 agreement

All of the parties of the original agreement had now joined the EU and thus left CEFTA. Therefore it was decided to extend CEFTA to cover the rest of the Balkan states, which already had completed a matrix of bilateral free trade agreements in the framework of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. On 6 April 2006, at the South East Europe Prime Ministers Summit in Bucharest, a joint declaration on expansion of CEFTA to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro and UNMIK on behalf of Kosovo was adopted.[3] Accession of Ukraine has also been discussed.[4] The new enlarged agreement was initialled on 9 November 2006 in Brussels and was signed on 19 December 2006 at the South East European Prime Ministers Summit in Bucharest.[5] The agreement went into effect on 26 July 2007 for Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova and Montenegro, on 22 August for Croatia, on 24 October for Serbia, and on 22 November 2007 for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim of the agreement was to establish a free trade zone in the region by 31 December 2010.

After the declaration of independence of Kosovo on 17 February 2008 UNMIK continued to represent Kosovo at all CEFTA meetings. At the end of 2008 Kosovo changed its customs stamps replacing UNMIK with Kosovo. This resulted in a trade blockade from Serbia and Bosnia that do not recognise the Republic of Kosovo.[6] In July 2011 the government in Pristina sent security forces to two crossing points between Serbia and Kosovo in an unsuccessful attempt to enforce a ban on Serbian imports, which led to clashes.

Relations with the EU

All former participating countries had previously signed association agreements with the EU, so in fact CEFTA has served as a preparation for full European Union membership. Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia joined the EU on 1 May 2004, with Bulgaria and Romania following suit on 1 January 2007. Croatia is to join the EU in 2013. Macedonia and Montenegro are also official candidate countries of the EU.

At the EU's recommendation, the future members prepared for membership by establishing free trade areas. A large proportion of CEFTA foreign trade is with EU countries.

See also

Notes and references

Notes

a. ^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, while Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory. Its independence is recognised by 86 UN member states.

References

  1. ^ Data refer to the year 2009. International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database, [1]
  2. ^ Data refer to the year 2009. International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database [2]
  3. ^ http://www.eciks.org/english/lajme.php?action=total_news&main_id=417
  4. ^ http://www.unian.net/eng/news/news-160543.html
  5. ^ http://www.euinkosovo.org/upload_press/Central%20European%20Free%20Trade%20Agreement%20initialled.pdf
  6. ^ GAP Policy brief #17: Kosovo and CEFTA: In or Out? March 2011[3]

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