Article | Last updated: 2013-08-13 | Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The EFTA states and the EU make up the two pillars of the EEA cooperation. For this reason, the institutional framework for the EEA Agreement is often described as having a two-pillar structure.
There are four joint EEA institutions in which representatives of the EEA EFTA states and representatives of the EU meet: the EEA Council and the EEA Joint Committee, which can be seen as forming a bridge between the two pillars, and the EEA Joint Parliamentary Committee and the EEA Consultative Committee, in which parliamentarians and social partners from the two pillars meet.
The most important institutions in the EFTA pillar are the EFTA Standing Committee, the EFTA Surveillance Authority and the EFTA Court. There are also two advisory bodies: the EFTA Consultative Committee and the EFTA Parliamentary Committee .