EFTA is a free-trade organisation of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Three of those are members of the EEA, Switzerland has bilateral agreements with the EU, such that all participate in the ESM. Is it possible to join EFTA without joining EEA or making agreements with the EU? Although EFTA is in principle an independent organisation from the EU, EFTA members have access to the ESM so I would expect that the EU might have a say in EFTA membership. How does joining EFTA work in practice?
For example, suppose the United Kingdom leaves the EU without any deal, and then, perhaps after a change of government, decides that the disruption to trade is causing unacceptable economic and societal damage, and decides to urgently join EFTA. What would it take to do so and would it, by itself, restore free trade between the UK and the ESM?
[eu]and[eu]with at the bottomeu: https://...rather than writing[eu][1]and[eu][1]with at the bottom[1]: https://...and got carried away with wanting to this feature I found after some 7 years on Stack Exchange ;-)urgentpart mostly speculation? Any deal seems unlikely to suit every country, which means there will inevitably need to be some negotiation. How long that takes depends on how easily the parties are willing or able to compromise. How long that will take we don't know (too many factors at play, I think).urgentpart. The rest of the question to me reads likewhat would it take for a third country to join EFTA to access the ESM?Because it refers to brexit we know a few more things about that third country. Maybe I'm nitpicking a bit too much. ;)