Public Access to Documents

Rules on public access to EFTA documents are laid down in Decision of the EFTA Council No 6 of 2007 (as amended) and Decision of the Standing Committee No 3 of 2007 (EEA-related EFTA documents). They specify the application process for requesting access to EFTA documentation. Their annexes list documents that EFTA shall make publicly available on its website.

A large part of EFTA documentation is made available (in English) in the EFTA Secretariat’s Public Journal. 

Some documentation can also be found elsewhere on our web pages: Legal texts such as the EEA Agreement and Joint Committee Decisions can be found (in more languages) on specific web pages, as can the EFTA Convention and third-country Free Trade Agreements. 

Individual legal acts that are considered for incorporation or have already been incorporated into the EEA Agreement can be found using EEA-Lex. 

In the EEA Supplement you can find Norwegian and Icelandic translations of EEA-relevant texts. Weekly issues of the EEA Supplement contain information notices from the EU, as well as information from the EFTA Surveillance Authority, EFTA Court and the Standing Committee of the EFTA States. The EEA Supplement is also the publication venue for Norwegian and Icelandic translations of EEA incorporated legal acts and Joint Committee Decisions.

If you are looking for EFTA documentation that you have not been able to find on the web pages specified above, it could be that the documentation in question is not deemed “public”. However, it may still be provided on request. 

Please email your request in English with as clear a reference to the documentation needed as possible to access [at] efta.int (access[at]efta[dot]int). You will receive an acknowledgement of receipt and can expect a reply to your request within 12 working days. Note that you may be informed of further delays if the EFTA States need to be consulted regarding the access request.

Inactive paper records that are younger than 40 years old are stored at EFTA’s headquarters in Geneva and may be consulted by sending a request for access (access [at] efta.int (access[at]efta[dot]int)).

For access to historical records, please be informed that the EFTA Secretariat has deposited its fonds at the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU), located at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. EFTA records from 1960 to 1984 have been inventoried and are accessible here. 

Requests for access to these records may be sent directly to the HAEU where the records may be consulted in accordance with the rules governing access to and use of the HAEU.